A former March Madness hero is moving up the ranks.
Ali Farokhmanesh has been named as the next head basketball coach at Colorado State. Farokhmanesh is best known to college basketball fans for helping lead Northern Iowa to an upset win over top-seeded Kansas in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
After his college career ended, Farokhmanesh played overseas until 2014. Then he went into coaching, beginning as a graduate assistant. He joined Niko Medved’s coaching staff at Drake in 2017-2018 and followed Medved to Colorado State. Farokhmanesh was an assistant on Medved’s staff from 2018 until this season and was promoted to head coach after Medved left to take the Minnesota job. Under Medved, the Rams went 26-10 this season, won the Mountain West, and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing.
Now Farokhmanesh will be tasked with keeping things rolling in Fort Collins.
“Ali has a relentless attitude that he attacks each day with, which was important to us as we looked for the next leader of our men’s basketball program. There has been significant interest in the head coach position at Colorado State. After an extremely comprehensive and competitive national search, Ali’s continued leadership of this program is important and really excites me. His ability to connect with people has made him successful throughout his career,” Colorado State athletic director John Weber said of the hire.
