Andrea Armstrong (born May 18, 1982) is an American who is a former NCAA basketball player.

Andrea Armstrong
Personal information
Born (1982-05-18) May 18, 1982 (age 42)
Lakeside, Oregon, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Career information
CollegeKansas State (2000–2002)
South Florida (2002–2004)
PositionForward / Center

Armstrong hails from Lakeside, Oregon, but was born in Longview, Washington.[1][2]

After a stellar high school basketball career, Armstrong began her collegiate sports career in 2001, with the Kansas State University basketball team. She played for Kansas State until the 2002 season. She was a 2002 Academic All-Big 12 selection.

Armstrong transferred to the University of South Florida in 2003, which was a red shirt season in accordance with NCAA regulations. She was team co-captain for the 2004 season. She claimed to have converted to Islam soon after her arrival at the Florida campus.

Armstrong created a controversy when she requested to be allowed to play in Islamically appropriate attire. The school initially did not want to allow her to do this, and Armstrong lost her scholarship in the first week of September of that year.

On September 11, the school announced it was going to back off and let Armstrong wear modest athletic attire for their basketball games, and re-instate her scholarship. Armstrong and school officials had met the previous day to discuss her reinstatement. Ahmed Bedler, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was present at the reunion, and he declared that "An athlete should not be asked to choose between engaging in healthy sporting activities and her deeply held religious beliefs".

Days later, Armstrong left the team.[3] She averaged three points and two rebounds per game for South Florida.

In October, Armstrong also left Florida and returned to Oregon, where she e-mailed a local newspaper her reversion to Christianity and renunciation of Islam, and regretfully retracted her conversion to the latter.[4]

Kansas State and South Florida statistics

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Source[5]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2000-01 Kansas State 28 135 33.6% 0.0% 73.4% 2.7 0.9 0.6 0.1 4.8
2001-02 Kansas State 20 46 35.6% 33.3% 86.7% 1.5 0.6 0.1 - 2.3
2002-03 South Florida Sat out due to NCAA transfer rules
2003-04 South Florida 27 93 34.4% 25.9% 62.5% 2.3 0.6 0.2 0.2 3.4
Career 75 274 34.2% 59.3% 45.6% 27.3 0.7 0.3 0.1 3.7

References

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  1. ^ "USF player said issue was a distraction". ESPN. Associated Press. September 15, 2004.
  2. ^ "00 Andrea Armstrong". K-State.
  3. ^ "USF's Armstrong Leaves Women's Basketball Team". USF Bulls. September 15, 2004. Archived from the original on January 15, 2005.
  4. ^ "Female Basketball Player Leaves USF, Returns to Christianity". WFMY News 2. Associated Press. October 19, 2004.
  5. ^ "NCAA Statistics". web1.ncaa.org. Retrieved 2021-05-26.