Mark Armstrong (born February 21, 2004) is an American

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

player for the

Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The t ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA). He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Villanova Wildcats The Villanova Wildcats are the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East (NCAA Division I) for every sport; except football and rowing where they compete in the Colonial Athletic Association (Football Championship Sub ...

Early life and high school career

Armstrong grew up in

South Orange, New Jersey South Orange, officially the Township of South Orange Village, is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village's population was 16,198, reflecting a decline of 766 (4.5%) fro ...

and attended

St. Peter's Preparatory School Saint Peter's Preparatory School ("Saint Peter's Prep" or "Prep") is a private, all-male, Jesuit, college-preparatory school located in Jersey City, in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. T ...

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Armstrong was named the Hudson County Interscholastic League Player the Year as a senior after averaging 23.4 points, five rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game.

Recruiting

Armstrong was rated a four-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * ''Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (En ...

and a consensus top-75 prospect by major recruiting services. On April 8, 2021, he committed to playing college basketball for Villanova over offers from

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

, UConn, Louisville, Seton Hall, Rutgers,

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, and

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

College career

Armstrong began his freshman season at Villanova as a key reserve. He started six of the team's seven games in December before returning to a backup role. He was named the Big East Conference Freshman of the Week after scoring 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field in his first career start against

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. Armstrong was named to the Big East All-Freshman team at the end of the regular season.

Professional career

After he went unselected in the

2024 NBA draft 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

, Armstrong signed with the

on June 28, 2024.

National team career

Armstrong played for the United States under-18 basketball team at the

2022 FIBA Under-18 Americas Championship The 2022 FIBA Under-18 Americas Championship was an international under-18 basketball tournament that was held from 6 to 12 June 2022 in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. The twelfth edition of the biennial competition, this is also the qualifyin ...

. He averaged 10.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game as the United States won the gold medal. Armstrong was also named to the United States' roster for the

2023 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup The 2023 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U19 national teams of the member associations of FIBA. The ...

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Villanova , 34 , , 7 , , 19.9 , , .401 , , .246 , , .875 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , .8 , , .1 , , 5.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;", Villanova , 34 , , 32 , , 24.5 , , .417 , , .282 , , .776 , , 2.3 , , 2.4 , , .9 , , .2 , , 8.4 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 68 , , 39 , , 22.2 , , .411 , , .266 , , .805 , , 2.1 , , 1.7 , , .8 , , .2 , , 6.8

References

External links

Villanova Wildcats bioUSA Basketball bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Mark 2004 births Living people American men's basketball players People from South Orange, New Jersey Basketball players from Essex County, New Jersey St. Peter's Preparatory School alumni Villanova Wildcats men's basketball players Point guards