FORT COLLINS — The next era of Colorado State men’s basketball has officially begun.
In front of fans, supporters, school administration and players, former assistant coach Ali Farokhmanesh was introduced as the 21st head coach of the Rams on Friday at a press conference in Moby Arena.
Farokhmanesh replaces Niko Medved, who left CSU earlier this week for the head coaching job at the University of Minneapolis. Medved coached the Rams for seven seasons and Farokhmanesh was an assistant under him for all of them.
“This is surreal,” Farokhmanesh said. “This is the dream I’ve had since I was a little kid. My parents were volleyball coaches at Washington State. I grew up watching them. My heroes were their players growing up. That’s where the dream started for me.”
After Medved left the day after the Rams were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on a buzzer-beater against Maryland, CSU Director of Athletics John Weber began the search for his replacement.
Weber said the brief search was extensive, but Farokhmanesh had the support of CSU fans and players and ended up being the easy choice to be the Rams’ next head coach.
“I had to make sure that we entrusted this emerging basketball power to the right person,” Weber said. “We ran an extensive national search. We talked to head coaches. We talked to high major assistant coaches We talked to a lot of people, and we worked our tail off to make sure that we made the right decision.”
After being introduced, Farokhmanesh praised the former CSU coach for his mentorship over the last seven years, and even before when the two coached together at Drake.
Farokhmanesh believes Medved was grooming him for the moment at hand during the last few years.
New Colorado State men’s basketball coach Ali Farokhmanesh hugs the school’s mascot, Cam the Ram, during his introductory press conference Friday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. (Nathan Wright/Loveland Reporter-Herald)“He really prepared me for this moment,” Farokhmanesh said. “We talked about it for three straight years. I would ask him questions, too. It was all intentional. I thought it was a coincidence at the time, but he had a plan, and he set me up for success again and again.”
Farokhmanesh’s college career at Northern Iowa is legendary. He hit one of the most memorable shots in March Madness history to send the Panthers to the Sweet 16 in 2010 with his fastbreak 3-pointer with 34 seconds left to knock off top-seed Kansas.
After working as a graduate assistant and then director of player relations and development at Nebraska, he became Medved’s assistant at Drake and later joined him at CSU.
Even before making the move to Fort Collins, he said he was excited about it. The love from the staff, players and community have made it impossible for him to leave, he said.
“When I was at Nebraska, they used to talk about it,” he said. “The university was amazing. The campus was something you’re never going to believe. You’re going to see the mountains. You’re going to see the sunshine every single day. And there’s some good beer too.
“This place is special. And the minute we got here, we’ve never felt different. It’s always felt that way from the day we stepped on campus. This is place is special because of the people.”
Now the new coach’s job begins. Farokhmanesh wants to build on the foundation that Medved has laid, which includes three NCAA Tournament appearances in the last four seasons and, most recently, the program’s first Mountain West Conference tournament championship in 22 years.
He is ready to get started and has already retained assistant coaches Tim Shelton and Ken DeWeese. He plans on bringing others in as well. He will also be tasked with retaining the team’s current players and recruiting new ones to fill the void left by four seniors.
“We’ve got a great foundation, but I want to build a building that everyone’s going to be proud of, that we’re going to look back on that this was the starting ground,” he said. “Niko has established something great, but we’re going to take this thing to another level.”
New Colorado State men’s basketball coach Ali Farokhmanesh takes questions from the media during his introductory press conference Friday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. (Nathan Wright/Loveland Reporter-Herald) Read More Details
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