On Tuesday, new Minnesota men's basketball coach Niko Medved held his introductory press conference. Among the topics discussed was his outlook on potential immediate success.

"We’ve seen some first-year coaches like Dennis Gates, Ben McCollum, even Cal at Arkansas, be able to come in and take the program to the tournament in year one. Is that something you feel energized to do? Is that a goal here?" KARE 11's Reggie Wilson asked.

"That’d be amazing," Medved replied quickly. "That being said, while he welcomes the idea of early success, Medved’s focus is on a much bigger picture for the program."

"The big thing is we want to build something sustainable here," he said. "We want to have sustained success, so I hope that happens in year one, but the bigger thing is to have sustained success."

Sustained success has eluded Minnesota over the last decade. The Golden Gophers have finished above .500 just three times since the 2015-16 season and have posted losing records in five of their last six seasons.

Before their recent struggles, the Gophers notched seven 20+ win seasons over 10 years from 2004-05 through 2013-14, which included three NCAA Tournament appearances.

However, outside of a stretch of three appearances in five seasons from 2009-10 through 2011-12, the Gophers have reached the NCAA Tournament just three other times since 2000, with their last trip coming in the 2019 campaign.

While Medved aims for Big Ten and NCAA Tournament success, he also wants to build a program the Twin Cities and Gophers fanbase can rally around.

"I mean, I want people who move to the Twin Cities or are around to say, ‘Hey, have you been to a Gophers basketball game? Oh man, you gotta go to a Gophers basketball game if you can get a ticket,’ you know what I mean? That’s my vision for this, and when you do that, it’s because you’ve built a consistent winner, and you have a product that people want to come out and see," he said.

"But short term, yeah, I mean, we want to be as good as we can next year. I mean, that is the goal starting today."

That being said, every head coach, when hired, has ambitious ideas and visions of building a program into a conference contender and perennial NCAA Tournament team. So what makes the Minneapolis native so confident that he can get it done at Minnesota?

"There’s a lot of things, but I think I believe in what we do, and how we do it, and the formula to make that happen," Medved said when asked about his confidence in himself and his coaching staff getting the Gophers where they need to be.

The longtime head coach also believes he has an advantage in his previous coaching experience at Minnesota. The Golden Gophers are the third program he’s led as head coach, having also been an assistant at Furman and Colorado State, both of which were successful rebuilds under his guidance.

"When you come in here, you kind of have an immediate vision of what that needs to look like," Medved said, alluding to his previous experiences at other programs. "How you can hit the ground running, what works, you know, at a place like Minnesota. I think that really helps us."

While Medved has the confidence and belief that he could be successful with the Gophers, he also has the proven track record of being a program builder. In his 12 years of coaching experience, Medved has compiled a career record of 222-173, including 143-85 at his most recent institution, Colorado State.

In each of his three previous stops, Furman, Drake, and Colorado State, Medved was tasked with rebuilding each program.

At Furman, he turned a program that had won just seven games the season before his arrival into a team above .500 within just three seasons, and a 20+ win team within four seasons.

In his lone season at Drake, Medved led the Bulldogs to a 17-17 record, an impressive accomplishment considering the program had a combined 14 wins in the two seasons before he took the head coaching job in Des Moines.

At Colorado State, the Rams, a historically strong program, needed a reset after a disappointing 11-win season in 2017-18. While he won just 12 games in his first season in Fort Collins, the Rams quickly became a contender in the Mountain West Conference, winning 20+ games in five of the next six seasons and earning three NCAA Tournament appearances over the last four seasons.

Now, he’ll look to do the same with the Golden Gophers, a program that has struggled to find consistent success over the past decade.

"I think now, in today’s era of college athletics, we’re more poised than ever to take the next step," Medved said on Tuesday. "I look forward to seeing the Barn packed, a big game maybe against a rival down south or down east, and finding a way to pull it out and having the fans celebrate, seeing ourselves back in the NCAA Tournament, seeing ourselves playing in that game, vying to go to the Sweet 16, and building a consistent winner here. I know when we do that, this place will rally. We’ll rally to a level hopefully we’ve never seen before, so I’m really excited for the opportunity."

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