Reports: Niko Medved hired as new Minnesota Gophers head coach

Niko Medved has been widely considered Minnesota's top candidate to be its next men's basketball coach, and after Colorado State lost in the NCAA Tournament in a thriller against Maryland on Sunday, he's now in line o be the next head coach of the Gophers, according to numerous reports.

Medved is expected to be introduced during a press conference on Tuesday.

As a native of Roseville, Minn., Medved is 51 years old and just led Colorado State to its second straight NCAA Tournament and third in the last four seasons. Across six seasons in Fort Collins, he compiled a 142-85 record, including a 78-50 mark in the Mountain West.

After graduating from Roseville High School, Medved attended the University of Minnesota, where he was a former student manager for the program's great teams in the 1990s that were led by head coach Clem Haskins. His coaching career began in 1997 at local Division III program Macalester as the associate head coach.

He was then an assistant at Furman from 1999-2006 before returning to Minnesota as an assistant on Dan Monson's staff from 2006 to 2007. He was an assistant for seven seasons at Colorado State before getting his first head coaching job at Furman in 2013-14.

Medved led the Paladins for four seasons before one year at Drake in 2017-18. He then returned to Fort Collins, where he's been the head coach at Colorado State since 2018.

With the Rams, he notably developed former Breck School star David Roddy into a first round NBA draft pick. He recruited current first-team All-Big Ten Wisconsin wing John Tonje out of high school, and senior Rams star Nique Clifford is on his way to being a first-round pick this summer.

Medved becomes the 19th head coach in the history of Gophers men's basketball. All signs point to him retaining current Gophers assistant coach Dave Thorson. Medved and Thorson worked with each other at Drake and Colorado State previously, and Thorson was asked to stay on with the Gophers despite head coach Ben Johnson being fired earlier this month.

With the transfer portal offically 'opening' on Monday, March 24, the dominoes regarding next year's roster and the rest of the coaching staff could begin to fall quickly.

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