CSU gets Medved replacement and it’s a name all college hoops fans know
Mar 26, 2025, 5:50 PM | Updated: 5:54 pm
A man who hit one of the biggest shots in college basketball history, Ali Farokhmanesh, is now coaching the Colorado State Rams—according to multiple reports.
Farokhmanesh takes over the Rams after Niko Medved was hired by Minnesota earlier this week. Farokhmanesh was on Medved’s staff and has been up in Fort Collins since 2018 when Niko was first hired by CSU. Ahead of the 2024-25 season, he was named the associate head coach, helping the Rams to a third NCAA Tournament bid while being on staff.
Farokhmanesh is credited as a huge part of CSU guard play. He helped five-time All-Mountain West selection Isaiah Stevens grow into the player he became and pushed Nique Clifford into being a likely first round pick.
Farokhmanesh came to Fort Collins from Drake, where he was also an assistant coach under Medved for a season.
Before Drake, he worked as a graduate assistant and then Director of Player Relations and Development at Nebraska. He managed and oversaw the off-the-court responsibilities of the student-athletes, including implementing mentoring programs and community outreach. On campus, he directed recruiting operations, including on-campus hosting duties.
Farokhmanesh’s coaching career follows a storied playing career at Northern Iowa. He helped UNI to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances, including the program’s first-ever Sweet 16. He hit one of the most memorable shots in March Madness history to send the Panthers to the Sweet 16 with his fastbreak 3-pointer with 34 seconds left to knock off top-seed Kansas.
He went on to play four years of professional basketball in Europe competing for teams in the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland.
Medved’s exit could be crushing for the Rams, who established themselves as the best college basketball team in the state of Colorado with a miraculous run down the stretch this season. After starting 5-5, the Rams went 20-4 the rest of the way to secure the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West Tournament, where the Rams then won three more games to take the title.
In the NCAA Tournament, Colorado State pulled off a comeback victory in the first round against No. 5 seed Memphis before losing to No. 4 seed Maryland Sunday in the second round.
Medved had the Rams ranked as high as No. 13 in the AP Poll (2023) during his time in Fort Collins, and had the team ranked in the top 25 in multiple seasons. In 2023, the team made the NCAA Tournament as an at-large, where they played the Virginia Cavaliers in the First Four and put on a defensive clinic en route to a victory.
In his coaching career, Medved’s teams are 222-173, with a 143-85 record at CSU.
CSU Athletic Director John Weber had already announced that Farokhmanesh was serving as the team’s interim head coach as the program searched but ultimately stuck with Farokhmanesh.
