Southland Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)

14. Denzel Livingston

Livingston is a 6’4 guard from Houston who actually began his career as a D2 player. This is solely because he arrived at Incarnate Word back in 2011 and the Cardinals didn’t join D1 until two seasons later. As a result, we’re only considering Livingston’s final two seasons today, though they were pretty special seasons during Incarnate Word’s opening act in the Southland.

During that D1 debut season, Livingston averaged 20.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 2.5 steals, putting up monster numbers in a 21-win season for Incarnate Word, who finished 5th in league play. While the Cardinals played a lot of non-D1 opponents, Livingston did have a 36-point effort late in the year against Houston Baptist. His umbers as a senior were just as impressive (this time at 21.5 points a game) and he’d lead his program to another decent finish and a trip to the CIT.

He settled for Second Team All-Southland honors as a junior despite leading the conference in steals per game, but earned the First Team nod as a senior. Not only would Livingston help Incarnate Word make the transition to the D1 level, but he finished among the Top 10 in the nation in steals per game in both years. He scored nearly 1200 points across those two seasons and was an efficient and effective part of the Cardinals program throughout his career.