Gophers officially announce three assistants on Niko Medved's coaching staff

Armon Gates will join Brian Cooley and Dave Thorson on Minnesota's staff.

Feb 18, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Northwestern Wildcats assistant coach Armon Gates claps in the second half against the Minnesota Gophers at Williams Arena. The Northwestern Wildcats beat the Minnesota Gophers 72-66. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images | Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

The Gophers officially announced on Thursday that longtime assistant Armon Gates will be joining Dave Thorson and Brian Cooley on Niko Medved's first coaching staff at Minnesota. More staff additions will be announced at a later date, according to the school.

Thorson left Medved at Colorado State to join Ben Johnson's staff at Minnesota, and at his introductory press conference earlier this month, Medved hinted at Thorson remaining with the program, along with Cooley following him from Fort Collins. Gates will be joining the staff with 16 years of assistant coaching experience, most recently at Oklahoma for each of the last two seasons.

Dave Thorson

Anyone who follows Minnesota basketball knows that Thorson is one of the most well-respected basketball minds in the state. After winning nine state championships at DeLaSalle High School, he joined Medved's first staff at Drake and then followed him to Colorado State before coming back to Minnesota.

Brian Cooley

Cooley was on Medved's staff for the last four seasons at Colorado State, where they went to three NCAA Tournaments. He was previously the associate head coach at Wright State from 2016 to 2021 and before that he was at South Dakota State for nine seasons as an assistant.

Armon Gates

Gates is the younger brother of current Missouri head coach Dennis Gates. He has 16 seasons of head coaching experience at Kent State, TCU, Loyola Chicago, Northwestern, Nebraska, Oregon and most recently Oklahoma for the last two seasons. He's known for his recruiting and brings impressive experience to Medved's first staff.

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