NCAA Basketball: Top 10 players to wear jersey No. 12 in 2023-24 season
By Joey Loose
6. Javon Small (Oklahoma State)
After minimal impact as a bench piece in his freshman season, Small took a massive step forward as a sophomore at East Carolina, becoming one of the league’s best backcourt players with some incredible numbers, including nearly 16 points per game. After that breakout campaign, Small opted to transfer and landed in the Big 12 with the Cowboys. Across his first full season, he certainly adhered himself to the faithful at Oklahoma State.
His production nearly matched his work in the AAC, averaging 15.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 4.1 assists as a junior with the Cowboys. While it’s true that Oklahoma State finished near the bottom of the league standings in a pretty dreadful season, Small still showed plenty of promise, becoming the leading scorer and distributor for this team. There are rarely a lot of bright spots in a 12-20 season but Small was the best this program could offer.
Small jumped right into the mix with 29 points and 10 rebounds in a loss to Notre Dame in just his third game with the Cowboys. He scored 24 in a loss to Creighton and had a run of nice efforts in league play even though Oklahoma State was often outmatched by their conference foes. Most notable was his 34 points in the regular season finale loss at BYU. He’ll hope to build on that momentum next year at West Virginia.