*6/17/2011 We have made an update to the end of this article.

*6/30/2011 We have created a stand alone recruit page for Malcolm Armstead, please view it if you would like specific info about him.

Well we’ve been waiting for a while to find out who the newest Shocker will be in this recruiting class. We’ve had one scholarship left to give out for a while now, and it looks like Oregon PG, Malcolm Armstead will transfer to Wichita this coming year. With transfer rules, he will have to sit out one year. He will have one year of eligibility. Its a nice fit for WSU, and a nice tactical play by Coach Marshall. Joe Ragland will be a senior this next year, and when he graduates, Malcolm should float seemlessly into his new position as head of the offense. It is a nice stop gap going from a senior PG in Ragland, to one of the incoming highschool recruits which would either be a Redshirt Freshman, or a Sophomore when they’d take over the point. This allows one more year of coaching, and splitting time with Malcolm before either Cotton or Wessel take over the point. Unless Marshall has other plans, and goes for a JUCO point to take over for the team, after Malcolm graduates. Which is highly likely, knowing Coach’s love of JUCO PG’s of previous years.

Armstead played at Chipola which has been a lifeline of coaching talent recently, with all 3 assistants coaching there at one point, with Jans and Heiar both being the head coach. Look for us to start pulling more talent out of this pipeline as we progress as a team. Armstead’s stats for the 10-11 season at Oregon were; 8.6 ppg, 4.4 apg, 2.7 t/o pg, 2.3 stl, and shot .430 from the field, and .323 from three. He set Oregon’s single season school record for steals with 89.

Here is a screen cap of Malcolm’s Facebook page, stating he is currently attending WSU.

Until we have more “proof” with an official announcement from the University, we’re going to be sticking with this story.  Thanks to notquiteBWing over at Shockernet for breaking the news of Armstead joining the Shocks.

Update: The Eagle has confirmed the “rumor” and Malcolm is indeed a member of the basketball team. Once again Thanks to “notquiteBWing” for supplying this great lead.

Update: We had assumed that Malcolm would be a 2 year scholarship player, and be on scholarship the year he sits out. We do not know for a fact if this is true. Some indications are pointing to him not being a 2 year scholarship player, as we are still recruiting Andre Walker who would be able to play immediately for the 2011-12 season. Which would imply that we still have a scholarship available. Another scenario here would be that Walker could qualify for an academic scholarship, and Malcolm does indeed have 2 years of scholarship available. I just wanted to let this be known, because when I wrote this article I had just assumed that he would receive 2 years of scholarship. Apologies for any misunderstanding, or assumptions that would be untrue.