2023 Bevo Francis Top 100 Watch List
 
KANSAS CITY, MO. – Colorado Schools of Mines men's basketball players Sam Beskind and Adam Thistlewood were both named Sunday to the Bevo Francis Award watch list. The award is presented annually by Small College Basketball to the player who has had the finest overall season for a non-NCAA Division I team. The initial watch list consists of 100 players from the NCAA II, NCAA III, NAIA, NCCAA and USCAA ranks.
 
Beskind, a graduate transfer from Stanford in his first year with the Orediggers, is currently fourth on the club in scoring at 11.6 PPG but regularly fills the stat sheet in just about every other category. He leads the team with 72 assists and 29 steals, both of which rank second and third in the RMAC this season respectively while leading the league in assist/turnover ratio at 2.4 in 28.3 minutes per game.
 
The Tucson native is one of the top rebounders for Mines this season as well, pulling down 77 in 17 games at a 4.5 clip while shooting .567 from the floor, the best mark among all Orediggers this season with at least 100 field goal attempts. He has scored 10 or more points 11 times, including a stretch of six games in a row from November 26-December 17 and scored a career-high 25 in the fourth game of the season at Cal State Monterey Bay. He's also recorded four or more rebounds in a game 13 times with a trio of seven rebound games and has at least one assist in every game, dishing out five or more nine times.
 
Thistlewood, a graduate transfer from Colorado State also in first season with Mines, leads the team with 16.3 PPG on 51% shooting. He currently ranks seventh and ninth respectively in the league in scoring and rebounding, pulling down nearly seven rebounds per game and is second on the club with 37 assists while also shooting 40% from beyond the arc in 31.1 minutes per game, a mark which also ranks among the conference leaders.
 
As an Oredigger, the Golden native has scored in every game of the season to date and finished in double figures on 15 occasions and finished with 20 or more five times, scoring a season-high 24 on December 9 against South Dakota Mines. He's also recorded at least four rebounds in every game Mines has played, and has pulled down seven or more nine times and is coming off the first double-double of his collegiate career Saturday night against UCCS.
 
Six players from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference appear on the initial watch list, including Trevor Baskin and Blaise Threatt from Colorado Mesa, Akuel Kot from Fort Lewis and Joel Scott of Black Hills State. Mines is one nine schools to have multiple players selected to the initial Top 100 watch list along with Northern State, Northwest Missouri State, Keene State, IUP, Randolph-Macon, East Stoudsburg, Nova Southeastern and CMU.

The watch list will be reduced to the top 50 players on February 15, and then to 25 on March 15, followed by the finalists being announced on April 1 before the 2023 Bevo Francis Award winner is announced on April 3.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines men's basketball on Twitter at @minesmbb. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.