Horizon League Leads CollegeInsider.com All-Defensive Team Honorees

BOSTON – Four Horizon League men’s basketball players were recognized on the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major All-Defensive Team, the organization announced on Tuesday. Butler’s Ronald Nored, the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year, was joined by Damian Eargle of Youngstown State, Detroit’s Eli Holman and Trevon Harmon of Cleveland State. The Horizon League led all eligible conferences with four honorees.

Nored, the first two-time Defensive Player of the Year in the Horizon League, wrapped up his career with 207 steals, tying Thomas Jackson for the program’s all-time lead. The only Butler player to start all 37 games in 2011-12, Nored is one of just two players in Butler basketball history to record 400 career points, 400 career rebounds and 400 career assists. He finished his career in second place on Butler’s all-time assist chart with 497 career assists.

Nored was honored at the Final Four as one of 10 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award first team All-Americans and was named to the Capital One Academic All-America second team.

Holman finished his senior season as the second-leading shot blocker at Detroit with 163 career rejections with his 77 blocks as a sophomore standing as the sixth-most in one season in school history. The 2012 Horizon League's Sixth Man of the Year came off the bench to average 10.8 points and 7.0 rebounds per contest this past season, leading the Titans to the league's postseason tournament crown and a return trip to the NCAAs for the first time since 1999.

Harmon was honored for the second consecutive season after developing into one of the premier defenders in the Horizon League during his CSU career, capping his tenure by being named to the Horizon League All-Defensive team as a junior and senior.

This past season, Harmon ranked eighth in the league in steals (1.3). His defensive efforts helped the Vikings lead the league in scoring defense (60.1) and steals (8.5), rank second in field goal percentage defense (.414) and third in three-point field goal defense (.317) and turnover margin (+2.5).

He made multiple steals in 12 games this year.

On the offensive end, Harmon led the team and ranked 10th in the league in scoring (12.6) and third in three-pointers per game (2.2). Harmon finished his CSU career 12th in scoring (1,326), third in three-point field goals (206) and just outside the top-10 with 163 steals.

The Vikings finished the 2011-12 season at 22-11 overall, advancing to the postseason for the fourth time in the last five years, falling in the first round of the NIT and eventual champion Stanford.

Eargle helped lead Youngstown State’s resurgence, in which the Penguins finished the season their most wins since 2000-01 at 16-15. The Guins' eight-win improvement in the Horizon League marks the best one-year turnaround since the league went to 10 teams and the second-best in league history.

The junior played a large role in that, setting the Horizon League single-season blocks records for all games and league-games only. Eargle finished with 116 blocks, including 65 in Horizon League play. At 3.7 blocks per game, Eargle led the Horizon League and ranked third in the nation.