Losing the Milestone in the Heat of the Moment
The daily grind is what Medved enjoys most
Mike Brohard
After the game, he was doused with water, and Niko Medved wondered why.
Yes, it was a big win, one where his Colorado State men’s basketball team was challenged. His Rams were missing a key piece to open – Jalen Lake – and lost another in the process of the neutral-site game with Washington when starter Nique Clifford was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul.
Didn’t matter. The Rams didn’t flinch, pulling away late to beat the Huskies 86-81, moving to 8-0 on the season. That’s what Medved recognized.
His players saw the bigger picture.
“It’s funny. When you’re in the thick of it, you never really reflect on it,” Medved said. “After the game, you get doused with water and the players are saying congratulations. I was like, ‘what are you talking about?’ And they told me, ‘coach, that was your 100th win.’ For some reason, you don’t take a step back, you’re just going, going, going. I think it’s pretty cool to think about you get to do a job you love every day, and to kind of reflect, 100, wow, that goes by fast.”
Medved’s in his sixth year as the head man in a program where he was once an assistant. Naturally, he deflected any praise on himself and directed it toward those on the floor. The wins, he explained, are the product of great players and staff, all backed by a supportive administration.
Tim Miles isn’t fooled.
“He’ll tell you he knows coaching,” the San Jose State head coach said. “All you have to do is listen and you’ll find out a lot about Niko.”
In all seriousness, that’s what Miles did when he was leading North Dakota State, and he would constantly run into a young Medved. Often, those meetings were by design, as Miles had grown impressed with Medved’s outlook on topics in and around the sport.
They’d see each other recruiting. They’d meet up for lunch to talk. And before long, Miles wanted him to be part of his crew.
“He was at Minnesota my last year at North Dakota State, and we’d go out and have lunch when I got to the cities. I was always struck by Niko and how he was so in tune to what was really going on, whether it be the recruiting world, the basketball world, whether it be skiing, players or behaviors, whatever, Niko seemed like he had the right pulse,” Miles said. “I really respected that in him. He knew what recruiting battles we could win. We knew what battles we could fight when it came to scheme or game planning, and that was obvious just in our interactions from the get-go. When I had the chance to come to Colorado State, Niko was the first guy with me.”
When Miles left for Nebraska, Medved stayed behind as an assistant, and Miles understood, because he’d seen his assistant develop a fondness for not just the program, but the university and Fort Collins.
When Miles was expected at functions, Medved was there, too. Miles watched Medved invest as much in the program as he did, saying he acted like the head coach as much as he did.
Which is exactly what he wanted in an assistant because those who desire to become head coaches take on more than the job description asks. Beyond that, Miles said he was a phenomenal recruiter who put together the 2012-13 team which won 26 games.
That’s a testament to him and the people he’s brought into the program.Isaiah Stevens
He thought it was high time for Medved to become a head coach “and a really good one, at that.”
To see him reach the level at Colorado State is fitting. To see him still in place is not surprising to him, even though he knows his former assistant has had multiple suitors attempting to lure him away.
“I thought when we were there, we did some things to elevate CSU and the brand from where it was. I thought we did some really good things,” Miles said. “When I left for Nebraska and Niko decided to stay, and that was a huge thing for that team. It was a team of a lifetime. I think what Niko has done … You look at the way they do the uniforms for the cancer patients and some of the community things, he’s taken what we’ve done and taken it to a whole new level, and it’s been so impressive to watch. Then I’ve got to play against the guy. He can really coach. His teams are hard to guard and they’re tough minded and he has a unique style of play that’s hard to go against. It’s been fun as a friend to watch him prosper, but as a competitor, it’s not as fun to go against.”
It took a few years for Medved to lead the program. His first head job was at Furman, a program he turned into a 20-game winner before departing for one season to Drake. For the 2018-19 season, he was tabbed to lead the Rams and it’s been an upward trend since.
His 12 wins in his first season were followed by a trio of 20-win seasons. It was a streak which ended last year under a wave of injuries, finishing 15-18.
Now the Rams are undefeated and ranked No. 12 (Coaches)/No. 13 (AP), another milestone achievement for Medved and the Rams. The best part, the accomplishments have followed the initial blueprint.
“I think you come, you have a vision of what you want to do here, believe you can do it at this place,” Medved said. “It’s some affirmation that yes, we’ve been able to do it, to be successful and to do it in the way that we’ve wanted to do it with the kind of people and run the program the way we wanted.”
From the start, Medved was selling a program he hadn’t even put on the floor yet. You could find him anywhere in town, drumming up support, energizing a fanbase. He held court in the concourses of Canvas Stadium as football held it’s spring game. He went to every campus event possible to meet anyone and everyone he could.
He was also in homes, finding the right players. There was just something about him, where you believed he meant every word he was saying.
“I think he’s honest. He doesn’t give you any fallacies,” said Adam Thistlewood, who was part of Medved’s first recruiting class. “He’s straightforward and his character, his staff and the people he brings into the program and how he communicates is very respectful and honest.
“He’s brought in so many good recruits who are not only good players but good people, and that builds a culture of success, where he’s allowed to focus on basketball, and he doesn’t have to worry about any of the extracurricular stuff. He’s building people around him, but he’s also an excellent basketball mind. He completely understands the game, and I don’t want to take away from that at all.”
Team Together wasn’t just a starting point for a new collection of basketball souls. Sure, it looked great on a T-shirt and behind a hashtag, but it wasn’t just a catchphrase, it was a way of life for a new direction for the program, one which is still chanted at practices six years later.
He signed program-altering recruits in Isaiah Stevens and David Roddy in year two. He’s brought in transfers who have made an immediate impact. From incoming freshman to walk-on, they all aspire to the same virtue.
“We own being a tight unit. We own having a really good chemistry,” said Stevens, the program’s career assists leader who is on track to be its leading scorer as well. “We own having a good culture. It doesn’t matter if we have old guys, young guys, transfers, it doesn’t really matter. Those are our principles; those are our culture values and they’ve been able to withstand time. That’s a testament to him and the people he’s brought into the program.”
Which is important because those are the people Medved will see every day. In the coaching meetings on the second floor of the McGraw Center. At summer workouts and in-season practices.
The every day is where his focus remains. It’s simply the best part.
“It’s not a cliché. It’s Team Together. It’s everybody,” Medved said. “The one thing I know following coaching and sports my whole life, there’s never been a great coach who hasn’t had great players. That’s the bottom line. The players are the ones who go out and compete. The blood, the sweat, the tears, they have to respond to you challenging them, they have to buy into the culture you’re trying to set. It really is about that. I learned very, very quickly it’s about the people you surround yourself with. The players, the staff and everybody pulling in the same direction. When you’re able to do that, great things happen. Then it makes the things you talked about, the daily grind, enjoyable.
“There’s so much going on in our profession and college sports, it’s changing and its difficult. But I try every day to remember why I do this and enjoy that part of it. I still do. A lot of it is a credit to the people I do it with.”
Firmly planted in the day-to-day, Medved has done more game prep for Wednesday’s contest with Denver than time spent thinking about the century mark. He’s proud of it, but he can shrug it off just the same.
It’s a culmination, which helps a lot on the road recruiting, but invested in the grind of a season, coaches have little use for a past which extends beyond in-season performance. As impressive as the number is, his focus is on getting through the week with two home games, ending with a visit from St. Mary’s on Saturday.
But others can bask all the want in the Medved glow and recognize what he’s built and how it was constructed.
“You throw 100 out there and it doesn’t seem like much, but that’s five 20-win seasons. When you put it in that scenario, that’s pretty incredible,” Thistlewood said. “Being able to be part of that … I think one of the coolest parts was we came in and we weren’t a winning program. My first year, we won 12 games. After that, it was 20, 20 and we hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament, Capping off my career there, getting to the tournament from starting with a 12-win year is pretty spectacular.”
So, if it’s all about the great players, Stevens should get his share of the credit. Afterall, he’s been around for more than 80 of them, running the show at point guard since his arrival as a true freshman.
Stevens laughs a bit. See, the thing about being a great player – and he’s considered to be one of the elite point guards in the country – is somebody has to guide them.
Say, a coach. As great as Stevens is, he’ll be the first one to tell you there’s been major growth.
“It’s all about being aggressive. He instills confidence in his players, and I genuinely believe he trusts me to go out there and be myself,” he said. “I know it’s not like that for everybody all around the country, but here at Colorado State, I can definitely attest to that. That’s probably been the main difference in how I’ve been able to get better in the past five years.”
Medved just wants to get better in the next few days. What’s important in the moment is the season at hand, one which hasn’t even reached Mountain West play.
As for taking his share of the credit, the fluid distributor from Allen, Texas is happy to have played a role, but just like his coach, he’d rather focus on the number continuing to climb. Not for the totality, but for the immediacy of challenging for a conference title and another NCAA appearance.
“For his 100 wins? I’ve definitely been a part of a lot of them now,” he said. “I’m super excited just to be part of it. Great coach. He just instills so much confidence in his players. Hopefully there’s a lot more to come.”