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When Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle fired Ben Johnson in the middle of the night on March 13, he did so with one candidate in mind to be his next men's basketball coach.
Niko Medved.
And he got his guy.
Medved is leaving Colorado State to be the next coach of the Golden Gophers. CBS Sports first reported the news; the school subsequently announced Medved's hiring Monday afternoon.
"Niko is a Minnesota alum with a proven head coaching track record," Coyle said in a release. "He is extremely passionate about coaching and developing young men and takes great pride in being from Minnesota. He has had success everywhere he has been, and we look forward to him leading our men's basketball program at his alma mater."
A press conference is scheduled for Tuesday, according to a source. Medved is coming off a great 2024-25 season. He took the Rams to the NCAA Tournament, upsetting 5-seed Memphis in the first round and then playing Maryland to the final second before losing on a controversial buzzer-beater by Terrapins star freshman Derik Queen on Sunday night.
The 51-year-old Medved is a Minneapolis native and Golden Gophers alumnus (1997). He spent the past seven seasons with CSU, guiding the program to the NCAA Tournament three times and winning 143 games. Medved is an established program-builder: He went from nine wins in Year 1 at Furman to 23 in Year 4 before taking the Drake job in 2017 and flipping that school from seven to 17 wins in a year's time. In total, Medved has a 222-172 record in 12 seasons as a head coach.
"This job was too special to pass up and when the opportunity presented itself, I had to take it," Medved said in a release from the school. "I grew up a Gopher about 15 minutes away from The Barn. I went to school here, was a student manager here and coached here. This is a special place, it's home, and I cannot wait to get started."
Colorado State had a terrific run of player development under Medved: David Roddy, Isaiah Stevens and now Nique Clifford all blossomed into NBA-level players.
Minnesota will need to seriously invest in its men's basketball program in order to have a chance at sustained success in the Big Ten, let alone nationally. Sources said the program ranked in the bottom two in NIL in the league over the past three seasons.
With CSU's job now open, associate head coach Ali Farokhmanesh is expected to be one of the top candidates to succeed Medved in Fort Collins.
