Celebrating Tuesday, leaving Thursday: How Niko Medved's tenure ended at Drake

Niko Medved’s departure from Drake to Colorado State slowly developed over nine days from March 13 to March 22.

That’s what Drake athletic director Brian Hardin told the media at 4 p.m. Thursday, two hours after Marcel Jones, the father of Bulldogs recruit Messiah Jones, told the Register that Medved had let Jones know he was leaving to coach the Rams.

"I am not naive enough to think we were going to be together forever. I would have loved for that to be the case," Hardin said. "I would have loved to build something like Mark Few has at Gonzaga and be somewhere for 19 years and have a great program.

"I just thought we could get more than 11 months out of this relationship, and I thought we were just in the early stages of building something really special."

Faced with an unexpected men’s basketball coaching search just over three months into his tenure at Drake, Hardin readily gave the details of how Medved left the program. In short: On Tuesday night, Hardin said he celebrated with Medved that his coach was returning to Drake. Two days later, Medved was CSU’s head coach.

But there’s much more to it.

"I’m happy to go through a timeline of how things played out," Hardin said.

PETE: Medved left Drake in the dust, but he's put the Bulldogs back on a better road

Tuesday, March 13

Last Tuesday, Hardin said Medved told him he’d been contacted by CSU’s search firm to see if he had interest in interviewing for the job.

"And we had a long conversation in his office that day about the pros and cons of that," Hardin said.

"I certainly could understand why another school like Colorado State would have interest in talking to him. But I also made it clear that I didn't think now was the right time. I thought that we had accomplished a lot of good things, but it was just the start."

As the week went on, Hardin said he and Medved had several discussions on if he should pursue the CSU job or not.

Saturday, March 17

A day before Drake lost to Northern Colorado in the second round of the CIT, Hardin said he and Medved spoke for an hour back at the hotel about the CSU job. Hardin said he and Medved disagreed on whether a coach who’d been at one school for only 11 months should interview at another school.

Medved wanted to interview.

"We were at two different points on that," Hardin said.

Monday, March 19

Hardin said he, Medved and Drake President Earl "Marty" Martin had a "very good conversation" in Martin’s office, but that Medved still wanted to follow through with the CSU interview on Tuesday.

Tuesday, March 20

Medved interviewed with CSU. But he called Hardin later that day, the AD said.

"He called me Tuesday evening at 6 o’clock to say that he just did not have a good feeling about it, and he almost didn't get on the plane to go to the interview and he felt that it wasn't the right fit," Hardin said. "And that he wanted to return and stay at Drake and build things the right way, because he loved the vision of president Martin and what we could to.

"So he made a decision that Tuesday that he was going to pull out of the search."

Hardin said he bought a bottle of scotch — Medved’s drink of choice — and brought it to Medved’s house to celebrate him remaining Drake’s head coach.

"We said, 'Hey, we’re going to the top of the Valley, and we’re going to do it together,'" Hardin remembered, referencing the Missouri Valley Conference, the league Bulldogs compete in.

Thursday, March 22

Hardin said Medved called him at 9:30 a.m. to tell him he was taking the CSU job.

"I thought he was joking," Hardin said. "I said, 'You’ve got to be kidding, right?' He said, 'Nope, sorry. They called back, they pushed it, it’s too good of an opportunity. And I’m going to do it.'

"I asked him, 'Is there anything that could be done here to continue the conversation?' And he said no, that it was done.

"A monetary raise, I don't think, is what would have kept (Medved) here. He had expressed interest in something else — whatever Colorado State has."

Hardin and Martin met with players to give them official word that Medved had left the program.

"It’s hard, I think, not to some extent take this personally. But I feel even worse for (the players)," Hardin said. "None of them signed up with Drake to come play for four coaches in four years. They didn’t. They don’t deserve this. They deserve better. We will go out there and we will find something better."

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Moving forward, Hardin and Martin have already begun their coaching search and reached out to athletic directors of coaches they're interesting in pursuing.

Hardin said no current players have expressed interest in transferring. He said he's also reached out to members of Drake's 2018 recruiting class.

"We have some young men that are committed to Drake for all the right reasons, and I’m excited to have them become Bulldogs," he said.

As mentioned earlier, Bulldog recruit Messiah Jones' father said Medved told his son he was leaving Drake on Thursday; Jones also said Medved had told them earlier in the week that there might be a coaching change at Drake. Jones said he expects a lot of other schools to reach out to his son Thursday and Friday.

"I know Messiah really loved Drake," he said. "We’ve got to see what direction they’re going in."

Someone with direct knowledge of point guard recruit Kendle Moore said a Drake assistant coach told Moore about Medved leaving, and that Medved hadn't reached out yet. He said he expects other schools to "no doubt" starting gauging Moore's interest.

Matthew Bain covers college football and basketball recruiting for the Des Moines Register. He also helps out with Iowa and Iowa State football and basketball coverage for HawkCentral and Cyclone Insider. Contact him at mbain@dmreg.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewBain_.