Hardcore college basketball fans will likely never forget the name Ali Farokhmanesh due to his incredible play in Northern Iowa’s Cinderella run through the NCAA Tournament in 2010. But soon, Farokhmanesh is hoping to be remembered by college basketball fans for an entirely different reason.
After Farokhmanesh’s playing career came to an end, he got into coaching at the collegiate level. Since 2016, Farokhmanesh has been an assistant coach under Niko Medved, first at Drake University before later following him to Colorado State, where he has been for the last seven seasons.
After Colorado State’s NCAA Tournament run this year, Medved received the opportunity to coach for a Power Five program, accepting an offer to become the next head coach for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Instead of following Medved again this time around, Farokhmanesh was offered the vacant Colorado State job after Medved’s departure, an offer that he accepted on Wednesday.
Only time will tell whether Farokhmanesh is able to thrive on his own at Colorado State. But on paper, he has been put in a good position to succeed, given the current state of the Colorado State program, making it to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons.