Colorado State Names Assistant Ali Farokhmanesh As New Head Coach

The assistant turned head coach is a March Madness legend.

Colorado State men's basketball assistant Ali Farokhmanesh stands on the sidelines. | Sam Wasson/Getty Images

Colorado State men's basketball is promoting assistant coach Ali Farokhmanesh to the head coaching position after Niko Medved took the role at Minnesota this week, Sports Illustrated's Kevin Sweeney reported on Wednesday.

Farokhmanesh was seen as the favorite to take over the role at Colorado State. College basketball fans may remember him as the March Madness legend who hit a buzzer-beating three to sink No. 1 seed Kansas in the 2010 NCAA tournament with Northern Iowa.

The Rams' 2024-25 season came to an end on Sunday night when they lost to Maryland on a thrilling buzzer-beater.

Colorado State is hiring associate head coach Ali Farokhmanesh to replace Niko Medved, source tells @SInow.

CSU did a short search, but this was a no-brainer. Farokhmanesh has been essential to the Rams' success under Medved and is one of the best young assistants in the sport.

— Kevin Sweeney (@CBB_Central) March 26, 2025

This will be Farokhmanesh's first time working as a head coach.

He started his coaching career at Nebraska in 2014 as a graduate assistant, and was later promoted in '16 to the role of Director of Player Development for the Huskers. Farokhmaneh joined Medved in '17 at Drake, followed him to Colorado State the next year, and has been on his staff ever since. This past season, Farokhmanesh served as the program's offensive coordinator and was Medved's top recruiter.

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