Minnesota has hired Colorado State’s Niko Medved as its next coach. The native of the Twin Cities area and former student manager for the Gophers had the Rams within one basket of the Sweet 16.

If not for a buzzer-beater by Maryland on Sunday night, Niko Medved would still be coaching in the Sweet 16 with Colorado State this week. But if that loss did one thing, it sped up the process for Medved to return home to his alma mater and get started on injecting life into the Gophers men’s basketball program.

The Gophers’ effort to bring in Medved has been a bit complicated by geography. While Colorado State was playing in Seattle, Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle was in Milwaukee on Sunday, sitting courtside at Fiserv Forum preoccupied with his role on the NCAA selection committee and the Illinois-Kentucky, Iowa State-Mississippi games.