Colorado State’s Niko Medved reportedly involved in Big Ten coaching search

After Minnesota fired Ben Johnson, Colorado State head coach and Minnesota alum Niko Medved emerged as a logical candidate to take over the Golden Gophers basketball program.
Colorado State Rams head coach Niko Medved
Colorado State Rams head coach Niko Medved | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

After four seasons leading the Golden Gopher, Minnesota is moving on from head coach Ben Johnson. Johnson was fired after the team’s season-ending 72-64 loss to Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament. After replacing Richard Pitino in 2021, the first-time head coach failed to reach the NCAA Tournament. Now, Minnesota is reportedly looking for a more experienced head coach with a couple of March Madness bids on his resume. 

Minnesota interested in Colorado State’s Niko Medved after firing Ben Johnson

As Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68 reported on Thursday morning, Minnesota is likely to have Medved’s name at the top of its head coaching search. A head coach since 2013 at Furman, Medved has worked his way up to Colorado State with a one-season stop at Drake in 2017-18. He has led the Rams to two NCAA Tournament appearances across his six seasons in Fort Collins and is currently the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West Tournament. 

Medved is a Minneapolis native and a Minnesota alum. Medved was an assistant under former Golden Gophers head coach Dan Monson in 2006-07 before he left to become an assistant at Colorado State.

Colorado State is currently in the “First Four Out” according to ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi and needs to make a late surge through the conference tourney to secure an at-large bid, if not the league’s automatic bid into the big dance. Now add the chaos of an active coaching search to the pressure of March, and the Rams will be an interesting team to keep an eye on as they begin Mountain West Tournament play on Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. ET against seventh-seeded Nevada. 

The Mountain West is typically one of the most competitive mid-major leagues in the country, and last year the Selection Committee looked favorably upon it with six bids. Colorado earned a 10 seed but was forced to play Virginia in the First Four, knocking off the Cavaliers before falling to Texas in the first round, 56-44. 

For all of Medved’s mid-major success, he’s yet to win an NCAA Tournament game, though, for Minnesota, an appearance would do just fine. The Golden Gophers last qualified played in March Madness in 2019, Pitino’s sixth year. Minnesota has only qualified for the NCAA Tournament six times since the turn of the century, and this past season finished 12th place in the 18-team Big Ten with a 7-13 conference record.

Medved would be a great hire for Minnesota, and as Colorado State looks to move to the Pac-12, the stability of a Power Conference like the Big Ten may become even more appealing to the longtime head coach as he continues to ascend through the profession.