Niko Medved is now the fifth head men’s basketball coach at the University of Minnesota in the last 25 years. There’s reason to believe he’s the best since the Clem Haskins era of 1986-1999.
Haskins ran afoul of the NCAA, but the man could coach. He was outstanding at developing players and superb at motivating them. Popular with the fans and community, Haskins had winning teams who frequently packed Williams Arena because of their sustained success.
The NCAA investigation that later found the Gophers guilty of violations led to the Haskins firing after the 1999 season. His successor, Dan Monson, was a wunderkind after two seasons as head coach at Gonzaga where the Bulldogs made the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight in year two.
But Monson, 37 when he was hired, had the worst situation of any Gopher coach this millennium—having to operate under the dark cloud of the Haskins demise and the limitations applied on his program because of NCAA sanctions. After seven seasons he was fired with a 36-60 Big Ten record.
Tubby Smith rode the prior success of Rick Pitino to a national championship as head coach at Kentucky in 1998. Smith had been a Pitino assistant but was sliding in on-court success and popularity in Lexington when he left the Wildcats to succeed Monson.
At Minnesota, despite often flirting with an above .500 Big Ten record, Smith couldn’t break through with a winner on the national scene. He had just two NCAA Tournament teams in six seasons, although his overall record of 124-81 and winning percentage of .605 is the best among Gophers coaches this millennium.
The last two coaches prior to the Medved hire this week could be referred to as trainees. Pitino’s son, Richard, was hired at 30 years old in 2013 with one prior season of head coaching experience (at small school Florida International). His successor in 2021, Ben Johnson, had never been a head coach.
On-the-job training didn’t work out well for either. Pitino won .365 percent of his Big Ten games. Johnson, whose teams twice finished last in the Big Ten, was fired this month with a 22-57 league record in four seasons (.278 winning percentage).
Smith had the best resume of the U hires through Johnson. He had won at Kentucky and other stops before Lexington. At the U he came close to having the right core of players for a breakthrough season.
Now here comes Medved with a resume and experience that is distinctly better than Monson, Pitino and Johnson. The 51-year-old Minneapolis born Medved has earned sustained success since beginning his head coaching career at Furman in 2013. Unlike Tubby, he never had the privilege of landing at a blue-blood program, instead having to make the most out of limited resources and legacies.
At Colorado State, his most recent stop, Medved had the Rams in the NCAA Tournament three of the last four years. He owns an overall career record of 222-172 and was 143-85 at Colorado State where he was the only coach ever to win 20 games or more five times.
Medved’s coaching acumen was evident to observers of his team this month in the tournament. His team played with poise and discipline at both ends of the court. This was a team that was difficult to defeat if holding a lead in the last five minutes of a game. Over 40 minutes, Medved could be counted on to take timely timeouts, set up effective plays, or change defensive schemes.
His coaching chops have been recognized for years by those who know basketball. In March of 2021 after Pitino’s dismissal, state basketball legend Tyus Jones tweeted: “Gophers should hire Niko Medved and Dave Thorson ASAP.”
Thorson, the former DeLaSalle coaching icon, was then working for Medved in Fort Collins but soon joined Johnson’s staff. Thorson will now stay on the U staff, working with Medved again.
Medved grew up attending Gopher games and was a student manager for Haskins in the 1990s. He was a Gopher assistant coach for the 2006-2007 season.
He is back home now at this “dream job.” His experience as a head coach, familiarity with the state and U, combined with his motivation to succeed figures to make him more successful than any Gopher head basketball coach in a long time.
With its lack of support from the community and donors, and its losing reputation, U basketball is no blue-blood spot on the college basketball map. But it doesn’t have to be the mess the U has made of it either.
Minnesota is our only state supported school with Division I basketball and has a population full of alums. The town boasts Fortune 500 companies as landing places for U players who can choose from a diverse curriculum of academic majors at Minnesota. The number of college prospects in state high schools has exploded and improved dramatically in quality in the last 25 years. The practice facilities are modern and impressive. The nearly 100-year-old Williams Arena gets too much criticism because the bottom has dropped out of the program. Filled to capacity the place rocks with an energy that can shut up even the harshest critics.
Medved has no illusions about what it will take to win here. “It’s a talent acquisition business,” he said.
College basketball players will have interest in the Gophers if they’re assured of at least a couple of major things. Is there an opportunity for playing time? How much compensation goes with being a Gopher?
With a roster depleted by graduation and transfers, it’s clear there are going to be playing opportunities for the 2025-2026 season.
It’s expected the Gophers will be at least competitive, if not better, than other Big Ten rivals when it comes to revenue sharing with players. Athletic director Mark Coyle reportedly wants revenue sharing money for men’s basketball to be in the top third among Big Ten programs.
The other factor is Name, image and Likeness money for players. Johnson didn’t have much success in generating NIL money through the Gophers official collective, Dinkytown Athletes. It’s expected Medved’s personality, commitment to relationships and grit will make him more successful generating money for his program. “I am a big people person,” he said.
Medved won his press conference yesterday. His character came through when just about the first thing he said was Johnson is welcome around the program. “Ben is my friend,” Medved said.
When Coyle introduced his new head coach he predicted players will “love” competing for him. That caring about others is part of what attracted Coyle to Medved and could be considered a piece of his “proven track record.”
Medved, a self-described ultra competitor, promises to “pour his heart and soul” into his dream job. He knows success won’t come from just him. “It’s going to take all of us,” he said.
To take the Gophers to a level “never seen before” (his words), Medved is looking for a “team together” approach that includes those inside and outside the U, from players to donors, assistant coaches to season ticket holders, administrators to closet fans, and more.
“We want to be as good as we can be soon. Biggest thing is sustained success,” Medved said.
That would certainly differentiate him from his predecessors.
Would love to see the Gophers just become a middle-tier program in this conference. Obviously that’s not what we are fully wishing for, but chances are Coach Medved sees that merely becoming a .500 program (in conference) for several years would take this program to heights it has not been in decades. Since the day Clem and the boys walked off the Final Four floor in 1997 this school has had a grand total of THREE winning conference seasons in 28 years. That’s what we are dealing with here at this school, and it’s a first jump to just be relevant again. Win more than you lose. Get the fans back. Stop finishing near the basement year after year – you must end that train ride.