ASTON, Pa. – Darian Barnes, of the Neumann University men's basketball team was named the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Defensive Player of the Year, announced on Monday.
 
Head Coach Jim Rullo was named the CSAC Coach of the Year. In his fourth season as head coach, Rullo led the Knights to a school record 23 wins and is 82-31 in his career after guiding the Knights to back-to-back 20 win seasons. Coach Rullo has led the Knights to three straight CSAC Championship games, winning the first title for the program in 2014-15 CSAC Championship. He is the first Neumann men's basketball head coach to win the award since Brian Nugent won the award back in 2002-03.
 
Barnes was the coaches' pick as the first Defensive Player of the Year in conference history. Barnes grabbed 204 defensive rebounds out of 269 for the season. He also has 57 blocks so far this season. He finished the regular season averaging 10.8 rebounds per game, along with 14.2 points per game. In 18 conference games, Barnes leads the field in field-goal percentage, hitting 61.1% of his shots. He joined the 1,000^th career point club earlier this season.
 
DeShawn Lowman joins Barnes on the first team. This is the third straight season that Lowman has been named first team all-conference. Lowman set the program record in scoring earlier this season and currently has 1,767 points. Starting in all 25 regular season games, he leads the team, averaging 19.0 points per game. Lowman also adds 7.4 rebounds and has handed out 83 assists this season.
 
Carl Wallace received second team honors. Wallace has added 14.4 points per game this year while bringing down 8.4 rebounds over the 25 regular season games. In 18 CSAC contests, Wallace leads the conference in steals per game, grabbing 2.6. Wallace also reached his 1,000 career point this season.
 
Adam Robinson was named to the All-Sportsmanship team. The sophomore has seen time in 10 games this season and is an encourager from the bench while he is not on the floor.
 
Neumann won its first outright regular season conference title after going 17-1 in CSAC action. The Knights wrapped up the regular season 23-2 overall and broke into the top 25 for the first time in program history. Neumann will host a semifinal game at the Mirenda Center on Wednesday evening in its quest for its second CSAC Championship.