Sounds Like Mark Coyle Has Found the Next Gophers Men’s Basketball Coach

Outside of a Final Four run in 1997 that was removed from the NCAA record books just a few years later, the Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team has never been a regular March Madness participant. For most of the program’s history, it has been a middling Big Ten team happy just to make the dance.

But while Ben Johnson was head coach, over the last four seasons, they weren’t even that. Never once did any of Ben’s four Golden Gophers squads even get close to sniffing the NCAA Tournament. The furthest they made it was on NIT Tournament victory in 2024.

For his time in Dinkytown, Johnson will be known for having the worst winning percentage (56-71 | .441) of any University of Minnesota men’s head basketball coach in school history, who got more than three seasons at the helm.

In the days since, there have been a handful of coaches mentioned as possible replacements for Ben Johnson. The names have included some familiar candidates, like Ryan Saunders, Sam Mitchell and Colorado State’s Niko Medved.

Minnesota Gophers expected to hire Niko Medved as next men’s basketball coach

There were some others possibly in the mix too, but it appears Coyle has already made his decision. According to longtime local insider (especially U of M athletics) David Shama of Shama Sports Headliners, the University of Minnesota is poised to hire Niko Medved as its next head basketball coach.

Sources believe Niko Medved will be the next head men’s basketball coach at the University of Minnesota.  Those sources include a former college basketball coach with Minnesota ties who called Sports Headliners Friday to say Medved, head coach at Colorado State since 2018, will succeed Ben Johnson who was dismissed earlier this week after four losing Big Ten seasons.

That source, speaking on condition of anonymity, believes a deal has been agreed to between Medved and the U.

David Shama – Shama Sports Headliners

For months, most reports had Ben getting a 5th season as head coach. But athletic director Mark Coyle put that to bed, when he fired Johnson hours after their final game of the season, a loss vs Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament.

Niko Medved was born in Minneapolis and raised in the Twin Cities. He graduated from Roseville high school in 1992, before quickly jumping into coaching, a career he started at Macalester college from 1997-1999. From there, he joined the coaching staff at Furman University, before being hired by Dan Monson, as a member of his Gophers coaching staff in 2006.

Related: Ben Johnson Finally Fired as Gophers MBB Coach

Monson was fired halfway through that season, which ended up being a blessing in disguise for Medved, who immediately landed on the Colorado State staff in 2007, where he remained an assistant until 2013, when he was promoted to head coach. In his 7 seasons leading the Rams, Medved is 140-84 with three NCAA Tournament appearances, soon to be four.

Mark Coyle had his plan when he fired Ben Johnson

For those of you who enjoy listening to Darren Wolfson‘s scoop sessions every week on SKOR North, this news isn’t a surprise to you. On Thursday, Doogie reported that Coyle already knew who he wanted to hire and that the process in finding Minnesota’s next men’s basketball coach will wrap up in expedited fashion.

“Mark Coyle always has a plan. It’s not like he fired Ben then said ‘ok, what should we do now?’. Mark Coyle already has his guy, I’m just telling you. It may take a few days, but Mark knows exactly what he’s doing. But whoever that next guy is, let’s say Niko Medved of Colorado State, whoever that next guy is… is a whole lot going to change?”

“Mark knows what he is doing. I don’t randomly say the name, Niko Medved. That would be the name more than any, that I would keep an eye on… Mark Coyle knows exactly what he is doing and I would have Niko Medved at the top of any list…Look at the name, Niko Medved.”

Darren Wolfson – SKOR North

As Wolfon notes above, Coyle is a very intentional person. He would not have fired Ben Johnson if he didn’t have a replacement plan already in mind, probably already in place.

Related: What We Learned About Gophers in Crushing Loss vs Northwestern

Another hint came when the Minnesota Gophers announced they were retaining assistant coach Dave Thorson, longtime head coach at DeLaSalle high school, and a great friend of Niko Medved. This is a great hire and hopefully the beginning of a much more exciting era of Golden Gophers basketball.