2. Rylan Bergersen – BYU / Central Arkansas / Eastern Washington
A well-traveled athlete who followed a similar path as the already mentioned Deandre Jones, Bergersen is a 6’6 guard originally from Boise who spent a year at prep school in Missouri. Bergersen then spent two seasons as a minimal contributor at BYU before two impactful years at Central Arkansas. His fifth and final seasons of college ball came this past year at Eastern Washington, and we’ll touch on all of that below.
After not seeing much time at all across two seasons at BYU, Bergersen transferred to Central Arkansas in 2019, averaging 15.8 and 16.9 points per game respectively in those two seasons. He had a 26-point, 7-assist performance in a win over Abilene Christian late in his second season before transferring to Eastern Washington. An important piece for the Eagles, he had a career-high 32 points in a win at Omaha and was the third-leading scorer on a good offensive squad.
He was named All-Southland Third Team for each of his seasons with the Bears, while also playing solid basketball in that final year in Eastern Washington. He had impressive assists numbers late in his career, leading the entire Big Sky in that final campaign. He was an all-around talented athlete who made a certain impact these last few seasons at a pair of schools after not getting a chance to shine at BYU.