The Gophers are expected to name Colorado State’s Niko Medved as their new men’s basketball coach on Monday after his season ended Sunday night with a loss against Maryland in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle had his eyes on Medved early to replace Ben Johnson, who was fired after finishing 15-17 in his fourth season.

Medved, a U graduate and former Gophers assistant, went 143-85 in seven seasons at Colorado State, which included at least 25 wins and NCAA tournament bids in three of his last four seasons. He had back-to-back seasons with NCAA tourney wins for the first time in program history.

The 51-year-old Roseville graduate got his start as a Gophers student manager under Clem Haskins and then as associate head coach at Macalester from 1997-99.

Medved paid his dues as a Division I assistant for 14 seasons, with stops at Furman (1999-2006), Minnesota (2006-07) and Colorado State (2007-13). At Furman under Larry Davis and at Colorado State under Tim Miles and Larry Eustachy, Medved was part of rebuilding programs.

Furman hired Medved for his first head coaching job in 2013. The Paladins went from 9-21 in Medved’s inaugural season to Southern Conference regular-season champions during a 23-11 season in 2016-17.

Returning to the Midwest, Medved went to Drake and experienced a 10-win improvement from the previous year at 17-17 in 2017-18. At Drake, he reunited with former DeLaSalle coach Dave Thorson.

Thorson, who was a Gophers assistant under Haskins and Johnson, grew close to Medved when they worked together on Haskins’ staff in the 1990s.