Wooster's Billings on Bevo Francis Award Watch List
Jamir Billings, senior point guard at The College of Wooster, was recently named as one of 100 players on the Bevo Francis Award Watch List. The Bevo Francis Award is given annually to the best non-Division I men’s college basketball player.
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 recently. The Bevo Francis Award is given annually to the best non-Division 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. At the time the list was released, Billings ranked 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 Jan. 4. His seven steals against Johnson & Wales University 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 sophomore he was a first-team All-NCAC pick following a dynamic all-around year in which he was in the top 20 nationally in steals and became the first Scot with two seasons with at least 140 assists. He scored a career-high 30 points against Wabash College in the championship game of the NCAC Tournament, where his ten 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 while his 84 steals were the fifth-most in Div. III and his three steals per night also ranked in the top five nationally. 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 entered the week of Feb. 17 with a record of 18-5 overall and 10-4 in the NCAC.