This isn’t an alum with no head coaching experience. This isn’t a young guy with a familiar, national last name but only one season at the head of his program under his belt. This coaching hire is different. Niko Medved is a Roseville native, a U alum and a former Gophers assistant coach who’s spent the last 13 years as a head coach across three mid-major programs, and he’s won at them all. His most recent stop was Colorado State, and Medved led the Rams to the NCAA Tournament in three of the past four years. Colorado State may have been the country’s best mid-major in America by season’s end, only to be done in at the buzzer in a second-round game against Maryland by a fantastic shot from a soon-to-be NBA lottery pick. He’s won in all eras at all stops with all levels of resources. He’s rebuilt cellar dwellers to the point where they achieve sustainable success. He knows this area like the back of his hand. Except for high-major head coaching experience, Medved checks every box that figures to be required to succeed at a place where success has been far from frequent. The program’s previous two coaching searches featured an abundance of mystery and twists and turns that resulted in semi-surprising candidates being hired for a variety of reasons. This was as straightforward as it gets. Immediately after Ben Johnson was let go, a number of names were tossed out in media circles. But every candidate list started and, really, ended with one name: Niko Medved. This was a no-brainer. Kudos to Mark Coyle and Co. for successfully hitting the softball lobbed to them. Medved is a slam dunk, sure thing … should such a thing exist at Minnesota. The constraints still exist. Williams Arena’s concourse and amenities are hideous. The U’s basketball teams are competing with the Wolves and Wild for interest all season, and the Vikings for more than half of it. The athletic department has been lapped in the Name-Image-Likeness game. The program’s list of nonvacated achievements are … slim (though the fond memories of the retroactively awarded national titles from the early 20th century remain fresh in our minds and hearts). The University of Minnesota men’s basketball coach has a lot to overcome. And he has to find ways to do so largely on the strength of his own ingenuity. “You’ve got to find people outside of Mark (Coyle), the administration, that can really help elevate the thing. That really, really care about building a championship program,” a reflective Richard Pitino told Dan Barreiro on KFXN-100.3 last week. “The next coach, he’s got to rally a lot of people around him to really build an army, because you’re trying to take down some iconic brands in college basketball.” You need to not only be good with the white board and on the recruiting trail, but you have to be able to put butts in seats and checks in the bank at a higher rate than most. Medved may have a leg up on his predecessors with the incoming revenue-sharing system that will allot $20-plus million to schools to pay players across sports. But most of that money will go to football, and while Minnesota will have more ability to pay, the same is true for the programs that already have significantly more spending power than the Gophers. The playing field will still be far from level. Basically, do more with less than many of your primary competitors. Think you can handle that, Niko? Pitino noted to Barreiro that every coach in program history has been fired. The last two to suffer that fate went on to have success elsewhere – Tubby Smith returned Texas Tech to relevance and Pitino has New Mexico comfortably resting atop the same Mountain West Conference from which Medved arrives. And Pitino’s and Johnson’s year-by-year Big Ten records at Minnesota look awfully similar. “Honestly, when I reflect on it, I’ve won 26(-plus) games the last two years – back-to-back years,” Pitino told Barreiro. “I’m not a better coach now than I was back then.” Clearly, Pitino wasn’t a bad coach. It’s quite possible Johnson wasn’t, either. The reality is you couldn’t have known for sure at the time either was dismissed. Medved’s proof is in his past. His tenure begins with the firm knowledge that he is a good college basketball coach. That will be true whether he fails or succeeds in Dinkytown. This is the last rebuttal for the argument that “you just need the right coach” for the Gophers men’s basketball team to be consistently relevant. Because the right coach was just hired. And if Medved ends up not being the right coach, well, then the right coach for this program – at least given its current circumstances – doesn’t exist. Related Articles College Sports | Niko Medved named next Gophers men’s basketball coach College Sports | Gophers coaching search can advance with Niko Medved’s Colorado State falling in NCAA Tournament College Sports | Women’s basketball: Gophers hold off late Missouri State run to win second WBIT game College Sports | Gophers are Fargo-bound, will face UMass in NCAA hockey opener College Sports | NCAA Frozen Four: Gophers season comes to a close ...read more read less