Small-college men’s basketball to be honored

John McCarthy has coached, served as an athletic director, consulted, marketed and directed the NAIA Men’s Basketball Tournament, among other duties.

Because he’s done it at the small-college level, it means he’s also washed the uniforms, swept the floors and driven the team van.

“I’ve always had the passion for basketball, specifically for small-college basketball,” McCarthy said at a news conference at the College Basketball Experience.

Now, he plans to honor the game. McCarthy is in the process of establishing a men’s small-college basketball hall of fame, an early season tournament involving small colleges and a national small-college player of the year award to be named for Bevo Francis, one of the game’s greatest scorers.

“What we’re doing is uniting all of those who are passionate about small-college basketball,” McCarthy said.

The hall of fame ceremony would take place in Evansville, Ind., as early as November 2016, with a tournament held in conjunction with the event.

A website, smallcollegebasketball.com, has been launched with links to the non-Division I classifications and organizations it intends to reach: NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA Divisions II and III, the U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Christian College Athletic Association.

There are more than 1,200 schools in those classifications, with fewer than 400 in NCAA Division I.

“I have such a passion for the coaches, the student athletes who work and labor so hard for so long, just as they do a Kansas and Duke and Kentucky and so on,” McCarthy said. “Our coaches, players and administrators, they care just as much and work just as hard.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Small-college men’s basketball to be honored."