Analyst suggests Niko Medved will be 'heavily involved' in Gophers opening

Does Minnesota have a clear option it should target to be its next head coach?

Mar 20, 2024; Charlotte, NC, USA; Colorado State Rams head coach Niko Medved speaks to the media during the NCAA first round practice session at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Ben Johnson was officially fired by the Gophers late Wednesday night after four seasons leading the program. Is there already an obvious candidate to replace him?

Longtime national college basketball analyst and insider Jeff Goodman quickly posted to X on Thursday morning that he expected Colorado State head coach Nikko Medved to be "heavily involved" in Minnesota's coaching search.

I would expect Colorado State’s Niko Medved to be heavily involved with the Minnesota opening. https://t.co/RJFrekANW9

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 13, 2025

As a native of Roseville, Minn., Medved is 51 years old, and he's in the middle of his seventh season as the head coach of Colorado State. The Rams are one of the hottest teams in college basketball, winning 12 of their last 14 games and seven in a row. They're the No. 2 seed in this year's Mountain West Tournament, and they're looking for their third NCAA Tournament appearence in the last four seasons.

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 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 and then came back to Minnesota and joined Dan Monson's staff from 2006 to 2007 as an assistant. 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, Colo., where he's been the head coach at Colorado State since 2018-19.

He notably developed former Breck School star David Roddy into a first-round NBA Draft pick, identified current All-Big Ten star John Tonje out of high school and he has compiled a 131-82 (.615) record in his seven seasons at the helm. He worked with current Gophers assistant Dave Thorsen at Drake and Colorado State, and it's clear that he understands recruiting in the Twin Cities.

There will be a lot of finances and outside circumstances that will go into Minnesota's head coaching search, but it's obvious that Medved checks almost all the boxes you want in a candidate.

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