University of Minnesota Duluth men's basketball fifth year senior Charlie Katona has been named to the 2025 Trevor Hudgins Award Top 25 watch list this morning.
The award is named in honor of Northwest Missouri State's Trevor Hudgins, who during his historic career with the Bearcats led the team to three consecutive NCAA Division II National Championships. During his career, Hudgins started in every game and never lost in the NCAA Tournament, leading the Bearcats to a remarkable 17-0 record in the national tournament. Hudgins was named the NCAA Division II Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022, and holds the NWMSU scoring and assists records while finishing his career as the number one highest scorer in MIAA history.
Considerations for the Trevor Hudgins Award are overall career statistics and achievements, team achievements, awards, and personal character. The player must have played his entire career at the small college level. The overall intent of the Trevor Hudgins Award is two-fold: 1) To keep the collegiate legacy of Trevor Hudgins alive and continue to tell his story to the next generation, and 2) To provide a national platform to honor outstanding players – and ultimately one player – within small college basketball on an annual basis.
As the reigning NSIC Defensive Player of the Year, Charlie Katona is currently leading the Bulldogs in total points (320), total rebounds (141), and steals (32) this season while shooting 119-242 (49.2%) from the field. Katona continues to cement his name in the Bulldog record books, currently sitting at sixth place on the all time career scoring list with 1719 total career points.
Small College Basketball plans to narrow down the list to the Top 15 by Saturday, March 1, and further down to the top finalists by Saturday, April 5. The award winner will be announced on the following Monday, April 7.
Katona and Bulldog men's basketball takes on the Concordia St Paul Golden Bears today in Romano Gymnasium to close out another weekend of NSIC action. Tip-off against the Golden Bears is currently set for 1:00 PM.
