One of the most Minnesotan facts about Niko Medved was his love for hockey as a kid growing up in Roseville.

“I was a hockey nut,” he told the Pioneer Press this week. “Every day, I would skate, I would play. I love the sport.”

In middle school, Medved was set to join an elite traveling team in his hometown. But his parents, Milo and Karen, had to discuss it among themselves first. They later told him the time (and financial) commitments would be too much for their family of five; Niko has two brothers, Anton and Aleksi.

“I told him, ‘Niko, I’m sorry. We have five members of our family. We can’t devote 80% of our time for one,’ ” Miro recalled this week.

Niko was crestfallen, but he quickly bounced back and picked up basketball — on top of soccer and golf, the other primary sports of his youth.

“It’s so funny how life works,” Niko said Wednesday. “Had that not happened, I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

Then Gophers assistant coach Niko Medved holds a clipboard during a timeout during a game against University of Arkansas Little Rock at Williams Arena on Dec. 9, 2006. Medved was named Minnesota’s head coach this week. (Alicia Jerome / Gophers Athletics)

Medved shared that anecdote as he rested in a padded black chair in the corner of Williams Arena’s raised hardwood floor after being named the Gophers’ new men’s basketball coach on Monday. The University of Minnesota alumnus, former student manager under ex-head coach Clem Haskins and one-year assistant coach at Minnesota is now back to live out what he calls his dream job.

“I knew I always wanted to coach, but I’ll be honest, growing up, (if) somebody said, ‘Hey, you can be the head coach at Roseville High School,’ that would be awesome to get an opportunity to do that,” Medved, now 51, said during his introductory news conference Tuesday on the U’s practice court. “And then as my career kept going. I kept dreaming bigger and bigger.”

Medved has climbed the college ranks over the last 12 seasons, going from four seasons at Furman in Greenville, S.C., to one year at Drake in Des Moines to the last seven seasons at Colorado State. His Rams teams in Fort Collins, Colorado, have made three of the last four NCAA Tournaments, including being a Maryland buzzer-beater away from reaching the Sweet 16 this week.

Medved’s desire to be a head coach really started as a Gopher student manager in the mid-1990s. “I looked at it like a coaching internship, which was the best thing I ever did for my career,” he said.

During that time, Medved worked at the Nike All-American Camp, where Haskins connected him with George Raveling, who took Washington State, Iowa and Southern California to the NCAA Tournament.

“At that time, it was just kind of the epicenter of grassroots basketball,” Medved said of the camp. “All these guys, you name it. I remember being at camp with Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, I could go on and on. … These guys went on to have great careers in college basketball or professional basketball, just getting an opportunity to kind of be a part of that at the highest level was really cool for me at such a young age.”

Medved bonded with Frank Martin, who was then head coach at Miami (Fla.) Senior High School and has since been head coach at Kansas State, South Carolina and now Massachusetts. He went to the Final Four with South Carolina in 2017.

“I just remember he and I talked about those days,” Medved said. “We were just, kind of, the younger up-and-comers.”

Miro Medved said he saw Niko as a future head coach during his one year as Gopher assistant coach in 2006-07. Dan Monson had been fired and Niko was helping out interim head coach Jim Molinari.

“He never spoke about it,” Miro said about being the aspiration to be a head coach. “Niko has always been one that: What he is doing, that is the task. That is what he is focusing on.”

Medved’s resume precedes itself. He was an assistant at Furman, Colorado State and the U before taking over as head coach. “(It’s) because he established a reputation,” Miro said.

Miro Medved has had to put his own head down in order to build a life in the U.S. He was born in Trboje, a small village in the former Yugoslavia and now Slovenia. He immigrated to the U.S. at age 7 and his family settled in Biwabik, Minn., a small town 200 miles north of the Twin Cities.

Miro then attended the U, served in the U.S. Army and settled in Roseville, starting careers, raising a family and being named an Honorary Consul to Slovenia.

Miro and the Medveds have held Gopher basketball season tickets at The Barn for more than 50 consecutive seasons. Miro’s love for basketball also played a role in steering Niko away from hockey rinks roughly 40 years ago.

Niko has recalled going to games when he was five or six years old. After his hiring this week, he went back to those seats in Section 114 of The Barn, which are kitty corner from his new seat on the U’s home bench.

Medved name-dropped watching former Gopher players such as Kevin Lynch and Melvin Newbern in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, an era when Indiana coach Bob Knight and Purdue coach Gene Keady were “roaming the sidelines here.”

“It was just a magical time in the Big Ten and college basketball,” Medved said. “And so when I’m a kid, and I’m doing that, and I’m watching it. This program was really starting to take off, and this place was full. The energy was unbelievable. And so those were the kind of the transformative times, you’re like, ‘I want to be a part of that.’”

But the Gophers have fallen on hard times. Minnesota has made six NCAA Tournament appearances in the last 26 years since Haskins was forced to resign after the academic scandal in 1999. The previous coach, Ben Johnson, couldn’t get over the hump in his four seasons, having his roster hit hard by defections when a lack of name, image and likeness (NIL) money led to two key players receiving bigger paydays after last season. Johnson was fired earlier this month after posting a 56-71 overall record and 22-57 mark in Big Ten play.

University of Minnesota athletics director Mark Coyle, left, and head coach Niko Medved pose for a photo during an NCAA college basketball news conference, Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Gophers Athletics Director Mark Coyle has committed the U to spend $6 million in buyouts for Johnson to leave and Medved to come in from Colorado State. Coyle has vowed to spend more of the incoming revenue sharing on the men’s basketball program and he rewarded Medved with a $3 million salary, which is $1 million more than Johnson received.

“I’ve seen this place at its best,” Medved said. “I believe we have everything it takes here to be successful. We have one of the best universities in the country. We play in the premier league in the country. We have, in my opinion, the best community in the Big Ten. We plan a historic venue that, in my opinion, OK, when it’s right, is one of the best places to watch a game and be at a game in college basketball.

“I just feel like now is the time.”

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