Bill Armstrong continues to reload the Cowboy roster.

And he’s doing it in a big way.

Armstrong landed his second inside player when Jerrell Colbert from SMU announced his commitment to McNeese State on Instagram. The 6-foot-10 power forward is awaiting paperwork and is expected to make things official with his signing in a matter of days.“We are concentrating on big men to start with what we are losing,” Armstrong said last week. “We like where we are on certain guys we have targeted.”

While Armstrong can’t comment on players until they are signed, he stated that rebuilding the paint is the key early for him and his staff.

McNeese is losing Christian Shumate, Bryant Selebangue, and Brandon Murray from last year’s team, which won the first NCAA Tournament game. 

Last week, McNeese signed 6-7 Jacolb Cole, who played for Armstrong at Link Academy in high school. 

Last season, Colbert played in 33 of 35 games for the Mustangs, averaging 2.5 points and 1.8 rebounds while shooting 63.6% from the floor. He had a season-high 13 points against Boston College. 

At Kansas State, the year before, he started the last 13 games.

On Monday, Sincere Parker became the fifth Cowboy to enter the transfer portal. 

The move is not surprising to anyone in the McNeese State basketball program.

The 6-foot-3 guard had some big games last season for the Cowboys.

Parker finished second on the Cowboys in scoring with a 12.2 average despite not starting a game and getting just over 19 minutes a game. He played in 34 of McNeese’s 35 contests.

He had some big games, including 17 against Purdue in the tournament’s second round. Parker also had 12 in the Cowboys’ victory over Clemson.

Parker scored in double figures 19 times during the season, including 31 against Longwood. He was the Southland Conference’s Player of the Week once. 

Parker averaged 15.9 points during the season before he came to McNeese while playing at St. Louis University.

The Rockford, IL. product joins Quadir Copeland, Alyn Breed, Selebangue, and Jerome Brewer as Cowboys entering the portal after last year’s historic season under Will Wade. 

Wade left McNeese for North Carolina State after leading McNeese to a 58-11 record and back-to-back Southland Conference titles in his two years in Lake Charles. Copeland and Breed have announced their commitments to follow Wade and transfer to N.C. State.

Bill Armstrong, a former Wade assistant at LSU, took over the Cowboys. He has retained four players, including SLC Player of the Year Javohn Garcia, who will return for his third season with McNeese. 

Garcia will be joined by sharpshooter DJ Richards, a second starter coming back. 

Two other guards, T’Johnn Brown and Howard Gaskins, also announced they would return to the Cowboys.