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Gophers' Niko Medved adds two assistant coaches to his inaugural staff

Medved is up to five assistants on his staff as he enters his first year as Minnesota's head coach.
Will Ragatz|
Niko Medved at his Gophers introductory press conference.
Niko Medved at his Gophers introductory press conference. | Minnesota Gophers

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Minnesota Golden Gophers

New Minnesota head basketball coach Niko Medved has added two more assistants to his inaugural coaching staff, per a release from the program on Monday. Chad Warner and Aaron Katsuma are the latest additions, joining three assistant coaches who were previously in place.

Warner spent the last three years with Furman in the Southern Conference. His first year as an assistant with the Paladins was in 2022-23, when they won 28 games and upset No. 4 seed Virginia in dramatic fashion in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Before that, Warner was a NAIA and D-II head coach at Flagler College (FL) for five years and at Shorter University (GA) for eight years. He's a 1998 graduate of the University of Georgia.

Katsuma, who returns to his alma mater, previously worked with Medved at Colorado State and Drake. He was a student manager at Minnesota during his undergraduate days from 2010-14, then spent two seasons as a graduate manager and one year as the Gophers' assistant director of player personnel under Richard Pitino. In 2017-18, Katsuma joined Medved's Drake staff, and then followed him to Colorado State for the next five seasons. He spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach on Pitino's staff at New Mexico, helping the Lobos reach back-to-back NCAA Tournaments.

Medved now has five assistant coaches. Dave Thorson, the longtime DeLaSalle High School coach, has worked with both Medved and Ben Johnson in recent years and is the lone holdover from Johnson's staff. Brian Cooley is a former CSU assistant who followed Medved to Minnesota. And Armon Gates, the brother of Missouri head coach Dennis Gates, has a ton of experience as an assistant at a variety of high-level programs.

The Gophers also announced a few other additions to their staff:

  • Joe De Ciman: Chief of staff
  • Rachel Herndon: Director of operations
  • Anthony Holland: Director of player personnel
  • Lucas Stieber: Director of player development

All four were previously with Medved at Colorado State. De Ciman, Holland, and Stieber are former D-I basketball players.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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