[ad_1]
Colorado State has promoted Ali Farokhmanesh to be its men’s basketball head coach, the school announced Wednesday.
Farokhmanesh, who has been an assistant at CSU since 2018, replaces Niko Medved, who left to become the head coach at Minnesota.
CSU’s announcement came in the form of athletic director John Weber posting a video of Farokhmanesh’s iconic shot against Kansas in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament on X.
Shot caller #Relentless pic.twitter.com/nSf60wddjc
— John Weber (@ColoradoStateAD) March 26, 2025
Farokhmanesh played college ball at two junior colleges before getting to Northern Iowa, where he played for two seasons. As a senior in 2010, the No. 9 seed Panthers faced the No. 1 overall-seeded Jayhawks. UNI led 63-62 with under 40 seconds left when Farokhmanesh got the ball on a fast break. Instead of holding the ball to run down the clock and get fouled, Farokhmanesh took and made a wide-open three-pointer. UNI won the game 69-67, before being eliminated by Michigan State in the Sweet 16.
Farokhmanesh made the cover of Sports Illustrated in the days after his shot against Kansas.
He played four years of professional basketball in Europe before getting to coaching as a graduate assistant at Nebraska in 2014. He joined Medved’s staff at Drake in 2017 and followed him to CSU.
Now Farokhmanesh will stay at CSU, inheriting a program coming off three NCAA Tournament appearances in the last four years. The No. 12 seed Rams won the Mountain West this season, then beat No. 5 seed Memphis in the first round, their first tournament win since 2013. Only a Maryland buzzer-beater kept CSU from its first Sweet 16 since 1969.
(Photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
[ad_2]
Source link
