Minnesota has announced the hiring of Niko Medved from Colorado State as its next male basketball chief coach.
The Medved season ended Sunday night with Colorado State losing 72-71 at the 4-seed Maryland bell in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Rams had won 11 consecutive games, including a championship of the Mountain West Conference Tournament and a 5 -seed Memphis victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
This will mark a return home for Medved, a native of Minneapolis who attended the University of Minnesota and spent a year with the GoPhers as an assistant coach in 2006-07.
In three of the last four seasons, Medved has taken Colorado State to the NCAA tournament, winning a game in each of the last two. The Rams were 25-6 in 2021-22, winning 6 seeds in the NCAA tournament but losing to Michigan in the first round.
Last season, the state of Colorado obtained a first place, where Virginia 67-42 exploded before losing to Texas.
In seven seasons with the Rams, Medved was 143-85.
Before taking charge at Fort Collins, he spent a season at Drake and Four Seasons in Furman. He won a part of the title of the regular season of the South Conference in 2017 with the Paladins.
In Minnesota, Medved replaces Ben Johnson, who was fired earlier this month after four seasons with the Gophers. Johnson was 56-71 during his time to the helm.
The Gophers have not been in the NCAA tournament since 2019 under Richard Pitino and have not advanced the first weekend of the tournament since Clem Haskins took them to a Fur Four in 1997.
