Billings on Bevo Francis Award Watch List

Jamir Billings, The College of Wooster's record-shattering point guard, is one of 100 players on the Bevo Francis Award Watch List, which was unveiled on Wednesday afternoon. The Bevo Francis Award is given annually to the best non-Div. I men's college basketball player.

As a senior, Billings is averaging career-highs in points (15.1), rebounds (6.3), and steals (3.3), while he is at 4.3 assists in his quest to average at least four assists per game in each season as a Fighting Scot. Through games played January 13, Billings ranks fifth nationally with 49 steals, 12th nationally in steals per game, and 43rd nationally in assists. He has Wooster currently ranked in the top-30 nationally in field-goal percentage (48.1) and in the top-40 nationally in opposition field-goal percentage (39.4).

This season, Billings led Wooster to an 11-0 start, for its fifth time starting a year 10-0 or better. The Scots were ranked as high as sixth nationally in D3hoops.com's Top-25 Poll. Billings has five 20-point games on the year, led by a season-best 28 in Wooster's record ninth-straight win over archnemesis Wittenberg University on January 4. His seven steals against Johnson & Wales University (R.I.) are tied for the second-most in single-game program history, trailing just the 10 he had at Hiram College in 2022. Billings has four games this season with at least four steals, three games with at least 10 rebounds, and four games with at least five assists. Billings scored his 1,000th point in December and became the program's all-time leader in steals.

Billings exploded onto the scene as a first-year, earning D3hoops.com Region 7 Rookie of the Year, North Coast Athletic Conference Top Defensive Player, and NCAC Newcomer of the Year honors following the 2021-22 season. He was the first player in NCAC history to earn the Top Defensive Player and Newcomer of the Year awards in the same season. As a first-year, Billings broke Wooster's single-season record with 84 steals and finished with 164 assists, two shy of matching the then-43-year-old single-season school record. Billings tied Wooster's 49-year-old school record with 12 assists against Kenyon College. He became the first player in program history to have three games with 10 assists, and the first to accomplish that feat in consecutive games. He took over the single-game steals record with 10 at Hiram and went on to finish his debut season sixth nationally in steals, 10th in assists, 13th in steals per game (3.00), and 18th in assists per game (5.9).

As a sophomore, Billings was elevated to first-team All-NCAC following a dynamic all-around year. He was in the top-20 nationally in steals with 69, which at the time, were the third-most in single-season program history. Billings joined Wooster great Antwyan Reynolds as the only Scots with multiple 65-steal seasons as a sophomore and moved into the program's top-10 list for career steals. Billings passed out 140 assists as a sophomore, becoming the first Scot with two seasons with at least 140 helpers. He scored a career-high 30 points against Wabash College in the championship game of the NCAC Tournament, where his 10 3-pointers broke Rick Hochstetler's single-game program record from 1997.

Last season, Billings became the first two-time winner of the NCAC Top Defensive Player award and collected a third all-conference honor. The NCAC 40th Anniversary All-Decade Team qualifier ranked third nationally with 164 assists and eighth nationally with 5.9 assists per game. Elsewhere, Billings' 84 steals were the fifth-most in Div. III and his three steals per night also ranked in the top-five nationally. He facilitated the offense that boasted Div. III's second-best team field-goal percentage. Ironically, Billings' junior year ended with 164 assists and 84 steals, the exact same totals he accumulated as a first-year. Billings became the program's all-time leader in assists in the regular-season finale at Wabash and moved up to second all-time in steals at season's end.

The award is named after the late Bevo Francis, who earned national acclaim and All-American status for Rio Grande College in the 1950s. It started being awarded in the 2015-16 season. Only one winner has come from Div. III since the award's inception.

Wooster (13-2, 5-1 NCAC), ranked 17th in this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, plays at Ohio Wesleyan University (8-6, 3-2 NCAC) on Saturday, January 18. Tipoff from Branch Rickey Arena is set for 3 p.m.