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Ali Farokhmanesh
American basketball player From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ali Fredrick Farokhmanesh (Persian: علی فردریک فرخمنش, born April 16, 1988) is an American former professional basketball player and current head coach of the Colorado State Rams men's basketball team.
 | This article is missing information about his college career. (March 2022) |
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Early life
Farokhmanesh was born in Ogden, Utah to Mashallah Farokhmanesh and Cindy Frederick, then volleyball coaches for the Weber State Wildcats.[1] He spent much of his early life in Pullman, Washington, where his parents coached the Washington State Cougars women's volleyball team.[2]
As a child, he played both basketball and volleyball, but lost interest in volleyball, considering it to be too much of a feminine sport.[a][1]
In 2004, he moved to Iowa and attended West High School in Iowa City after his parents took a job coaching the Iowa Hawkeyes.
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College career
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Farokhmanesh initially received no scholarship offers. Wishing to eventually play at the Division I level, he enrolled at Indian Hills Community College in 2006, but left after one season in the hopes of obtaining a walk-on position at Iowa. Iowa was uninterested. He considered quitting basketball after being rejected, but eventually decided to transfer to Kirkwood Community College, where he intensified his training routine significantly. While at Kirkwood, he led the team in scoring and assists, and caught the eye of Division I coaches after a 35-point performance against his former club Indian Hills.
Farokhmanesh subsequently received 15 scholarship offers, ultimately choosing to join the Northern Iowa Panthers. He helped the Panthers clinch a spot in the 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament by beating Illinois State to win the Missouri Valley Conference. The Panthers lost to Purdue in the first round.[1]
Farokhmanesh gained nationwide fame in the 2010 tournament, when he hit a crucial three-point shot to help UNI upset top-overall seed Kansas in the second round.[4]
Farokhmanesh played a total of 69 college games in two years and started all of them.[5] His heroics in 2010, which came two days after hitting the game-winning three-point shot against UNLV in the first round, led to an appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated.[6]
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Pro career
After going undrafted in the 2010 NBA draft, Farokhmanesh signed a deal to play for SAM Massagno Basket, an LNB Division A team based in Massagno, Switzerland.[7][8]
In 2011, Farokhmanesh signed with the Austrian team WBC Raiffeisen Wels. His contract was renewed in June 2012.[9] Farokhmanesh averaged 13.7 points per game in Austria.
On August 14, 2013, Farokhmanesh signed with SPM Shoeters Den Bosch in the Netherlands.[10] In April, Farokhmanesh won the DBL Sixth Man of the Year award.[11]
Coaching career
In 2014, Farokhmanesh stopped playing professionally, becoming a graduate assistant at Nebraska.[12] In 2016, head coach Tim Miles promoted him to director of player relations and development.[13]
On April 28, 2017, Farokhmanesh joined the Drake men's basketball program as an assistant coach for Niko Medved.[14] On March 26, 2018, he followed Medved to become his assistant at Colorado State University.[15]
On March 26, 2025, Colorado State named Farokhmanesh head coach, following Medved's departure to Minnesota.[16] He became the 21st head coach in school history.[17]
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Head coaching record
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Honors
- DBL Sixth Man of the Year (1): 2014
- Dutch Supercup (1): 2013
Personal life
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Farokhmanesh is of European and Iranian descent. His father, Mashallah, was born in Borujerd and was a member of the Iranian men's national volleyball team, before immigrating to the United States in 1977, where he played for professional teams and eventually became a coach.[18]
Mashallah married Ali's mother, Cindy Fredrick, who became the head coach for the women's volleyball team at the University of Iowa in 2004. Before moving to Iowa, Fredrick was the head coach of the Washington State University's women's volleyball team for 15 years, where she had a record of 278 wins and 192 losses. Cindy and her husband briefly coached at Luther College.[19] As of 2014, Cindy and Mashallah coached the UNLV women's volleyball team as head coach and assistant coach, respectively.[20] [needs update]
Farokhmanesh is married to the former Iowa Hawkeyes volleyball player Mallory Husz.[21] They have three sons and a daughter.[22]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA tournament and all NCAA-sponsored spring sports and also led to most U.S. universities going to online-only instruction, the Farokhmanesh family re-created his famous NCAA tournament shot in an empty Moby Arena on the 10th anniversary of the UNI–Kansas game. The shot was captured for a web video that Colorado State posted on its official athletics Twitter account.[23]
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Statistics
Regular season
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References
Notes
External links
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