Washington Basketball: 8 candidates to replace Mike Hopkins as Head Coach

Niko Medved

We won’t mince words with this one: Medved has been a hot name at most power conference openings in recent years. We’ll talk exactly about why in a second, but he’s one of those hot mid-major names that will eventually take the job that fits best for him, at least when he feels like he’s done winning at Colorado State.

Medved is a native and graduate of Minnesota who has been a collegiate coach for nearly three decades. He was an assistant at several schools, including briefly at his alma mater, before becoming Furman’s head coach in 2013. He began rebuilding processes at both Furman and Drake before landing at Colorado State in 2018. Ignoring an injury-plagued season last year, Colorado State has been in great shape recently and are zeroing in on a second trip to the Big Dance in three years.

It’d be hard for Medved not to leave Colorado State for a Big Ten job, but is this the Big Ten job that he’s looking for? You have to imagine he’s waiting for Minnesota to open up again one day. That being said, he’s only made a single trip to the NCAA Tournament in more than a decade as a head coach and Washington will be looking for someone with a winning pedigree. Then again, Hopkins contributed to a ton of success at Syracuse and that didn’t translate out west.