Former Cowboy basketball player Jeron Roberts gets his degree

Most of Roberts’ career was spent in Israel, and he was a starter on the Israeli National Team in 2007 that played in the European Championships. He played against current NBA greats such as Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs and Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers; his brother, Marc, of the Memphis Grizzlies; and Ricky Rubio of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Roberts obtained Israeli citizenship in 2006.

He had another goal when his playing days ended last year: complete his degree at UW.

Roberts received his bachelor’s degree in communications from UW last week — 15 years after he left the school to pursue his basketball dreams.

“I always thought about finishing my degree, and my parents were always on me about it,” Roberts said. “But I felt I would do it when I felt like it. When I wanted to do it, I would do it. After leaving basketball, I thought it was the best time.”

Roberts’ playing career ended when he was 36, and he knew he had to do something else with the rest of his life. He wanted to get into college coaching back in the United States, and to do that he needed to finish his degree.

But the process wasn’t easy.

Roberts was 19 credit hours short. A native of Covina, Calif., he returned to California after he retired from basketball. He ran into current UW men’s basketball coach Larry Shyatt while Shyatt and assistant coach Scott Duncan recruited in the Los Angeles area last summer. Shyatt coached Roberts during his senior year with the Cowboys during the 1997-98 season — Shyatt’s first season at UW before he left to take the head coaching job at Clemson after that season.

Roberts was recruited and signed by former UW coach Joby Wright.

Roberts told Shyatt he wanted to get into coaching but had not finished his degree. Shyatt offered to help.

He put Roberts in contact with Molly Moore, UW’s senior associate athletics director for internal affairs. One of her many duties is to help former student-athletes who want to complete their degrees.

It is not uncommon for student-athletes at colleges and universities to pursue careers in professional athletics before finishing their degrees. As Shyatt said, the window for professional athletes is not open for long, so when the opportunity is there, many take it.

However, Roberts’ story is not as common as many former athletes.

“It was definitely the length of time,” Moore said. “And the one thing that was different about Jeron than maybe other folks I have worked with is that he actually followed through with everything I asked him to do.”

First, Roberts had to apply at UW as a returning student and have his academic record re-activated.

Then, since UW’s university studies program had changed since Roberts left, he had to figure out what courses he needed to take — or re-take. Fortunately, Roberts was held to the same academic standards he faced when he was a student. The only class he had to retake was a geology class.

Roberts never returned to Laramie to take a class, but he did just about everything else to get his degree.

He took some classes at Cal-State Fullerton. He also took some classes through UW’s correspondence class program. He even used Skype to take a class through UW’s Casper branch.

Six of his credit hours were credited to his real-life job experience as the new men’s basketball coach at Pacifica University — a small start-up school in San Dimas, Calif., where he was recently hired as the men’s basketball coach and athletics director.

And Roberts had to complete a final project, which was a 15-page paper. The topic: Should athletes be paid while in college?

“That was the toughest thing I have ever done in my life,” Roberts said. “I got a 90 percent on it. I shocked myself.”

Moore said Roberts is the first former UW student-athlete she has helped who came back and completed their degree, and she hopes his story and process will motivate others to do the same.

So does Roberts.

“That is up there,” said Roberts on the sense of accomplishment of earning his degree. “A lot of people don’t have their degrees, and a lot of players who go on to play (professionally) don’t go back to school. They feel they don’t need their degree.

“For those who take a long time off, I did it for all of us. It gives you a sense of accomplishment.”

Roberts said if he could do it over again, he would have worked to get his degree sooner because he had a lot of free time during the season and during the couple of months he had off between seasons. Shyatt is a proponent of players finishing their degrees, but he is not opposed of those who choose to pursue a professional career if the opportunity arises.

Darren Tillis was a player for Shyatt when Shyatt was an assistant coach at Cleveland State from 1976-82. Tillis was selected as the 23rd overall pick in the NBA Draft by Boston. He played two years in the NBA and then played in Europe until 1990.

After his playing days, Tillis took two years to finish his degree and joined Shyatt on his staff at UW in 1997-98, and followed Shyatt to Clemson from 1998-2003. Tillis is currently an assistant coach at Central Florida.

“I never thought education was a race,” Shyatt said. “I didn’t think you were successful if you got your degree in a certain amount of time, or if you got your degree in a longer period of time.

“When guys like Tillis or Roberts use their brain and not finish their education at that time because they can perform in the game of basketball for eight, nine, 10 years, there is nothing wrong with that. But when they become more mature and care more about seeing their education through, that has always made the most sense to me.

“They now have the gift to tell their kids and grandkids that they got their degree. They are not going to ask how fast.”

Jeron Roberts at UW

Jeron Roberts was a 6-foot-3 guard at the University of Wyoming from 1995-98 and played 14 years of professional basketball in Europe. Here is where Roberts ranks in UW’s career record books:

Scoring: 7th, 1,599 points

3-point field goals made: 7th, 132

3-point field goals attempted: 4th, 416

Free throws made: 5th, 507

Free throws attempted: Tied for 4th, 678

Games played: Tied for 18th, 112

Games started (since 1984-85): Tied for 11th, 88