Ali Farokhmanesh finds his way in first year as head coach

Times are changing for Colorado State men’s basketball, but the shift under new head coach Ali Farokhmanesh has been more steady than dramatic.

When he was named the 21st head coach in program history March 26 after Niko Medved accepted a head coaching job with Minnesota, the program didn’t hit reset. Instead, it picked up where it left off, with the same core values and a familiar voice guiding it.

Farokhmanesh spent seven seasons next to Medved, helping build the identity that carried CSU through multiple NCAA Tournament runs, a Mountain West Tournament title and some of the best player development seasons in school history.

The new head coach’s fingerprints were on the rise of players like Isaiah Stevens and Nique Clifford, NBA-caliber talent that helped shape the program’s national profile. That ability to connect with players — the one he used to help bring in and guide some of CSU’s most significant names — is one of the biggest reasons the transition has felt natural.
“I guess you stick to the process of what you’re doing.” –Ali Farokhmanesh, CSU men’s basketball head coach
Part of that connection traces back to his time as a player. 

Before he began coaching, Farokhmanesh was a key piece at Northern Iowa, helping take the Panthers to the Sweet 16, during which he hit one of the most iconic shots in NCAA Tournament history to upset top-seed Kansas.

The 6-foot guard later spent four years playing professionally in Europe, which gives him a background that players recognize.

The biggest adjustments for Farokhmanesh haven’t come on the floor, though. They’ve come in the quiet pockets of time around games: the parts he never had to think about during his years as an assistant.

After CSU’s season-opening win over Incarnate Word, he said the new routine still feels strange.

“The lead up to the game felt way abnormal, like, I missed being on the court with the guys,” Farokhmanesh said. “I didn’t know what to do for like two hours there. And then Niko always used to talk about how you’d sit in a locker room by yourself while everyone else was on the court doing other things. And like, for those 20 minutes, it’s so lonely in that locker room, and you just get lost in your own thoughts.”

That sense of unfamiliarity hasn’t carried to the games themselves, which he said already feel natural.

Even his first win just came and went.

“Honestly, I really didn’t think about it as, like, the first win or anything,” Farokhmanesh said. “I guess you stick to the process of what you’re doing. So I don’t even think about anything more than, man, this was just a step in the process.”

That process isn’t new for him. It’s the same one he helped build under Medved, and his job now is to guide it instead of support it, which comes with its own learning curve.

Some of that shows up the moment he tries to settle into a game day rhythm.

“To be honest, the game didn’t feel abnormal,” Farokhmanesh said after the team’s exhibition against Creighton. “Everything leading up to it felt abnormal, though, like, I couldn’t take a nap. I usually always take a nap for like 30-40 minutes and, like, I was so sweaty, (so) I didn’t nap.”

A couple weeks later, not much had changed.

“Yeah, I still (have) got to get a pillow, though; I can’t nap yet,” Farokhmanesh said after CSU’s week two win. “I’m still figuring out that aspect.”

On the floor, the transition has been smoother.

CSU is already showing the unselfish, move-the-ball style it played with last year, and Farokhmanesh has repeated often that the group’s willingness to be coached is what stands out most.

“It’s been phenomenal, the way they’ve grown, the way they’ve changed, the way they’ve accepted being challenged,” Farokhmanesh said. “Anytime you want to grow, you’re going to go through some pains, right? You don’t call it growing pains for (no) reason.”

He said he’s seen it in how the players interact, as he’s been with this particular group for just one offseason and a few games so far.

“The connection (is) starting to pick up,” Farokhmanesh said. “You can talk about the talk on the court, the talk off the court, the joking around. That’s when you start feeling more connection. And then I’ve seen some more confrontation, too. And I think at some point that has happened more times, but it’s been healthy, too. The way they talk to each other after that — that’s been healthy.”

Those habits show up in games, too, especially when minutes and roles shift from one night to the next. After CSU beat Omaha, Farokhmanesh said how players respond to those changes will shape the team’s ceiling this year.

“That goes back to the whole group,” Farokhmanesh said. “I feel like they’ve all bought into a role. They’re all sacrificing something, and we talk about that a lot at the end of the day. For this team to reach its ceiling, they’re all going to have to sacrifice something.”

Even as the responsibilities change, parts of Farokhmanesh’s approach come from Medved, who he still references. The steady sideline demeanor, the simplicity in the game plan and the way the staff handles personalities come from years of watching CSU operate under the same blueprint.

“The way you handle the bench, the way you handle the guys, … I think Niko taught me a lot of those things,” Farokhmanesh said. “And to be honest, like, my coach in college taught me a lot of that, too. His demeanor on the sidelines (is) probably a lot more similar to mine. (I) don’t really react to too many things.”

Back in March, the newly announced head coach talked about how Medved prepared him to lead and how his coaching roots began with his parents. Nearly a year later, those same ideas show up in smaller, everyday ways.

The lonely stretch of time before tipoff might still feel unfamiliar. But so far, the part that happens once the ball goes up looks like a continuation of what CSU has been building for years.

For CSU, that process feels like it’s in the hands of someone who already understands it.

Reach Michael Hovey at sports@collegian.com or on social media @michaelfhovey.

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