BleedGopher
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Per Graham:
When Curt Kietzer assumed the mantle of head coach for Macalester men’s basketball in 1997, he needed an assistant coach. The team was in the midst of one of its frequent bouts of despair. It did not take long for the right name to come across his desk: Niko Medved.
The two seasons that followed commenced a coaching career that would carry Medved around the country. And now, almost three decades after he got that first gig on the corner of Snelling and Grand Avenue, Medved ascended to the head coach position for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Medved’s tenure at Mac would see the dawn of one of the program’s most successful eras. When he arrived, however, that outcome was far from certain. Medved and Kietzer inherited a program in a state of serious disrepair. To say that the Scots crashed and burned in the 1996-97 season would be to imply that they ever got off the ground.
Then-head coach Andy Manning led an injured Mac squad to a 2-22 record overall and a 1-19 record in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). Seven months after his final fruitless season finished, Manning resigned. He took his exit as an opportunity to vent to The Mac Weekly about the difficulty of recruitment at a school that prioritizes academics like Mac.
“Some people want to uphold the tradition of losing at Macalester,” Manning said at the time. “They think that athletics and academics cannot coexist together. They think that if Mac begins winning, they’ll turn into a basketball factory, and I don’t think that’s the case.”
Go Gophers!!
When Curt Kietzer assumed the mantle of head coach for Macalester men’s basketball in 1997, he needed an assistant coach. The team was in the midst of one of its frequent bouts of despair. It did not take long for the right name to come across his desk: Niko Medved.
The two seasons that followed commenced a coaching career that would carry Medved around the country. And now, almost three decades after he got that first gig on the corner of Snelling and Grand Avenue, Medved ascended to the head coach position for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Medved’s tenure at Mac would see the dawn of one of the program’s most successful eras. When he arrived, however, that outcome was far from certain. Medved and Kietzer inherited a program in a state of serious disrepair. To say that the Scots crashed and burned in the 1996-97 season would be to imply that they ever got off the ground.
Then-head coach Andy Manning led an injured Mac squad to a 2-22 record overall and a 1-19 record in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). Seven months after his final fruitless season finished, Manning resigned. He took his exit as an opportunity to vent to The Mac Weekly about the difficulty of recruitment at a school that prioritizes academics like Mac.
“Some people want to uphold the tradition of losing at Macalester,” Manning said at the time. “They think that athletics and academics cannot coexist together. They think that if Mac begins winning, they’ll turn into a basketball factory, and I don’t think that’s the case.”
Niko Medved: How new Gophers HC changed Mac basketball - The Mac Weekly
When Curt Kietzer assumed the mantle of head coach for Macalester men’s basketball in 1997, he needed an assistant coach. The team was in the midst of one of its frequent bouts of despair. It did not take long for the right name to come across his desk: Niko Medved. The two seasons that followed...
themacweekly.com
Go Gophers!!