Lourdes' sophomore guard Derek Fairley has been selected to the Bevo Francis Award Top 100 Watch List, Small College Basketball announced on Thursday afternoon.

The Bevo Francis Award recognizes the top men's basketball player in the country from a small college (division two, division three, NAIA, NCCAA levels). To win the award you must be playing excellent basketball while also displaying sportsmanship and good character on and off the court. Fairley is being recognized in the top 100 amongst roughly 15,000 men's basketball players that compete throughout the small college ranks.

Fairley leads the WHAC in PPG with 24.5 and is fifth in the entire country at the NAIA level in scoring. Fairley has led the Gray Wolves in scoring in all but two games this season. He's scored 20 or more points in 13 out of 17 games and 30 or more points in five of those games.

Fairley is coming off his best game of the season against Northwestern Ohio, in which he scored a career-high 37 points and was 13-for-15 from the free throw line. His three-point sharpshooting and poise at the charity stripe helped lead Lourdes to a well-fought 111-107 double overtime victory.

Fairley has helped lead the Gray Wolves to an impressive 14-3 (8-3 in WHAC) record this season, which has them currently sitting in third place in the WHAC standings.

If Fairley wins the Bevo Francis Award, he would become just the second NAIA player to win since its establishment in 2016 and the first underclassman to win the award.

The Bevo Francis Award watch list will continue to be cut down to 50 players, 25 semifinalists, several finalists and then a champion throughout the rest of the 2026 season.