Colorado State men’s basketball coach Niko Medved will be the new head coach at the University of Minnesota, leaving the Rams after seven years at the helm of the program.

Colorado State director of athletics John Weber issued a statement Monday afternoon confirming reports of his departure, and the University of Minnesota also put out a news release on Monday with the hire announcement.

The move, which had been rumored since the Golden Gophers fired Ben Johnson on March 13, was reported first by CBS and then later by ESPN, Fox Sports and Sports Ilustrated.

“I loved my time at Colorado State, and I worked with tremendous people who made a lasting impact on my life,” Medved said in Minnesota’s news release. “Those are moments I will cherish forever. This job was too special to pass up and when the opportunity presented itself, I had to take it.

“I grew up a Gopher about 15 minutes away from The Barn. I went to school here, was a student manager here and coached here. This is a special place, it’s home, and I cannot wait to get started.”

Medved spent seven seasons in Fort Collins, where he led the Rams to a 143-85 record and three NCAA Tournament appearances during that span. CSU’s 2024-25 season ended Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a last-second 72-71 loss to Maryland.

In his final season at CSU, the Rams went 26-10 and won the Mountain West Conference tournament for the first time since 2003. They began to turn their season around after a 5-5 start at the end of December.

Medved, a Minneapolis native, was an assistant coach at Minnesota in 2006-07 before a seven-season stint as an assistant coach at CSU from 2007-13. He got his first head coaching job at Furman in 2013 and was there for four seasons before becoming the head coach at Drake for one year.

He returned to Fort Collins in 2018 and after the team went 12-20 in his first season, the Rams won at least 20 games in five of his next six seasons.

His 143 wins at CSU rank second all-time in program history, behind Jim Williams, who won 352 from 1954-1980. The Rams’ 26 wins this season tied for the second-most in a season in CSU history and were the most since the 2012-13 team under Larry Eustachy was 26-9.

Last April, CSU announced Medved had signed a five-year contract extension through 2029 with options for 2029-30 and 2030-31. The extension paid him $1.7 million annually, and he was projected to make at least $1.75 million in 2025-26.

Weber said that a national search for Medved’s replacement has already begun and that associate head coach Ali Farokhmanesh, rumored to be one of the frontrunners for the position, will serve as interim head coach until a new one is selected.

“I am incredibly appreciative of Niko’s leadership over the past seven years, and I wish him and his family the very best in their next chapter,” Weber said. “We will not miss a beat, and we will continue to build on the championship foundation in place. We have already begun the process of recruiting the next leader of the Rams men’s basketball program and will not have any further comment until we introduce that individual.”