Who is Niko Medved? A closer look at the new Gophers men’s basketball coach

Niko Medved had his eyes on becoming a college basketball coach in his home state long before his dream became a reality Monday.

The 19th head coach in Gophers men’s basketball history worked his way up from being a longtime assistant, to turning around programs at the mid-major level, to making three NCAA tournaments at Colorado State.

Growing up in the Twin Cities and attending the University of Minnesota were just as important to his journey as his time making a name for himself in Fort Collins, Colo. It all contributed to creating the respected person and program builder he is today.

Here are important things to know about Medved:

Medved’s father was a Slovenian immigrant who moved to the U.S. at age 7 and eventually served as the honorary consul of Slovenia in Minnesota. One of three sons of Miro and Karen Medved, Niko competed in basketball and golf at Roseville High before graduating in 1992. His high school basketball coach, Kent Paulson, was in the movie “Little Big League” as the Twins' third-base coach.

Medved grew up going to Gophers games at Williams Arena because his father had season tickets since the late 1960s. Like his dad, Medved would attend the U, and he landed a spot on Clem Haskins' Gophers basketball staff as a student manager from 1992-96.

“My managers become head coaches and influential on different staffs,” Haskins told the Star Tribune in 2017. “That makes me feel good.”

Graduating just before the Gophers' 1997 Final Four season, Medved started building his coaching résumé while getting his master’s degree as an associate head coach at Division III Macalester from 1997to ’99.

While together on Haskins' staff from 1992 to ’94, Medved and assistant coach Dave Thorson developed a tight relationship that would last through the years.

“Niko was my right hand,” Thorson said years later of when he oversaw the Gophers student managers.

Thorson helped Medved get his first coaching position at Macalester. Thorson spent 23 years creating a championship culture with nine state titles at DeLaSalle, and he jumped back into college coaching on Medved’s staff at Drake in 2017.

They were together at Colorado State from 2018 to ’21 before Thorson left to join Ben Johnson. Thorson could reunite with Medved again with the Gophers.

Medved spent 14 seasons as a Division I assistant before he got his first head coaching job.

It started in 1999 when his Gophers connections paid off, landing him his first D-I assistant spot with former Haskins assistant Larry Davis at Furman in Greenville, S.C.

In 2006, Medved was a finalist to be the next Furman head coach when Davis went to Cincinnati. When Medved didn’t get it, he was without a job.

He almost took a break from coaching but latched on at the last minute with Gophers coach Dan Monson’s staff in an administrative role. He was promoted to assistant when Monson was fired early in 2006-07 before Jim Molinari took over as interim coach.

“Just stay with it, don’t quit right now,” Medved said then about advice from friends. “Hang with it and something good is going to happen.‘”

His next stop was Colorado State. Medved spent six seasons as an assistant on the staffs of Tim Miles and Larry Eustachy, including his first NCAA tournaments in 2012 and ′13. That was the last time the Rams won an NCAA tournament game before last year.

Drake was coming off a seven-win season and had finished last in the Missouri Valley when Medved arrived in 2017. Expectations changed with a 10-win improvement in just one season, but the winning culture started to build early.

The Bulldogs opened the season with a win over Wake Forest to finish third in the Paradise Jam. They nearly upset the Gophers in a 68-67 loss at the Barn.

At Furman and Colorado State, Medved experienced impressive turnarounds twice, with eight more wins than the previous season.

Former Breck two-sport star David Roddy turned himself into an NBA first-round pick in three seasons at Colorado State under Medved from 2019 to ’22.

As a junior, Roddy was named Mountain West player of the year and led the Rams to their first NCAA tournament appearance in nine years.

Also on that squad was current Wisconsin All-American John Tonje, who eventually transferred to Missouri and the Badgers. Without Tonje and Roddy, Medved had a down year at 15-18 in 2022-23, but he bounced back to lead the Rams to NCAA tourney victories the past two seasons.

1997-99: Macalester associate head coach

1999-2006: Furman assistant

2006-07: Gophers assistant

2007-13: Colorado State assistant

2013-17: Furman head coach

2017-18: Drake head coach

2018-25: Colorado State head coach

2025-present: Gophers head coach