Boise State Hall of Fame basketball player Roberto Bergersen is returning home to join the program as an assistant coach, Bronco Nation News first reported on Monday.
Bergersen, who was a second-round pick by the Atlanta Hawks in the 1999 NBA Draft, played at Boise State from 1996-1999 and was the Big West Conference Player of the Year as a senior.
He replaces assistant R-Jay Barsh, who is joining the staff at Florida State.
“To have the opportunity to bring a Hall of Fame alumni back, it’s really special,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said Monday. “To have somebody that is this excited to be a Bronco, it means a lot. … It means something to have guys back that built this thing with their blood, sweat and tears. That means everything to this program. For me, we preach family and the legacy you build here…for us to be able to bring him on, it’s pretty powerful.”
Bergersen, who was inducted into the Boise State Hall of Fame in 2007, spent last season as an assistant coach at Eastern Washington. He previously served as the director and coach of Hoop Dreams, an AAU basketball program in Boise.
His son Rylan Bergersen graduated from Borah High School in 2017.
“It means everything,” Bergersen said. “It’s a pretty surreal experience to be here. To be able to come full circle and actually start a new circle here, it’s a surreal feeling.
“I’ve been able to watch this program excel to heights that we had just started when I was here playing…so it’s just a great feeling. There was no doubt in my mind this was the thing to do.”
Roberto Bergersen is currently eighth all-time in scoring at Boise State with 1,485 points despite playing just three seasons with the Broncos following a transfer from the College of Southern Idaho. He averaged 17.3 points per game for his career – the fourth-highest total in program history. He’s second in career free-throw percentage at 80.8 percent, seventh in made field goals with 535 and 10th in made 3-pointers with 163.
Bergersen scored 644 points as a senior during the 1998-99 season, second only to Reggie Larry’s 661 in 2007-2008 for the most in a single season in school history. His 22.2 points per game average as a senior is also the second-highest in program history.
He went on to play 11 years professionally in France, Italy, Belgium, Turkey and Spain while also playing for the the Idaho Stampede in the NBA D-League. The Stampede retired his No. 11 in 2007.
Bergersen, who joins Mike Burns and Tim Duryea as assistant coaches, will focus on player development and recruiting.
“The reason I hired him is because he’s become a fantastic coach,” Rice said. “The time was right now and it all came together and the timing is perfect. This program is built around player development and I think he is one of the best in the country at that. He really is. … To bring him back home and get him to work with our guys, we’re really fortunate to have Roberto back in our program. It’s pretty cool.”
