Minnesota has announced the hiring of Colorado State’s Niko Medved as its next men’s head basketball coach.
Medved’s season ended Sunday night with Colorado State losing 72-71 at the buzzer to 4-seed Maryland in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Rams had won 11 straight games, including a Mountain West conference tournament championship and a victory over 5-seed Memphis in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
This will mark a return home for Medved, a Minneapolis native who attended the University of Minnesota and spent a year with the Gophers as an assistant coach in 2006-07.
In three of the past four seasons, Medved has led Colorado State to the NCAA tournament, winning a game in each of the past two. The Rams went 25-6 in 2021-22, earning a 6-seed in the NCAA tournament but losing to Michigan in the first round.
Last season, Colorado State earned a First Four berth, where it blew out Virginia 67-42 before losing to Texas.
In seven seasons with the Rams, Medved went 143-85.
Before taking over in Fort Collins, he spent one season at Drake and four seasons at Furman. He won a share of the Southern Conference regular-season title in 2017 with the Paladins.
At Minnesota, Medved replaces Ben Johnson, who was let go earlier this month after four seasons with the Gophers. Johnson went 56-71 during his time at the helm.
The Gophers haven’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2019 under Richard Pitino and haven’t advanced past the first weekend of the tournament since Clem Haskins led them to a Final Four in 1997.
