Ali Farokhmanesh
Ali Fredrick Farokhmanesh (born April 16, 1988) is an American former professional basketball player and current Colorado State Rams men's basketball *istant coach. Farokhmanesh gained nationwide fame in the 2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament as a member of the Northern Iowa Panthers men's basketball team, when he hit a crucial 3-point shot that helped UNI upset top overall seed Kansas in the second round. His heroics, which came two days after hitting the game-winning three-point shot against UNLV in the first round of the tournament, led to an appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Contents
- 1 Personal life
- 2 Playing career
- 3 Coaching career
- 4 Honors
- 5 Statistics
- 6 References
- 7 External links
Personal life
Farokhmanesh was born in Pullman, Washington, where he attended high school at Pullman High School for two years before moving to Iowa and attending West High School in Iowa City, Iowa. He then attended junior college at Indian Hills Community College and Kirkwood Community College before transferring to the University of Northern Iowa. In 2014, he stopped playing professionally and became an *istant coach for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
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. Mashallah married Ali's mother, Cindy Fredrick, who has been the head coach for the women's volleyball team at the University of Iowa since 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 small Luther College. Cindy and Mashallah now both coach the UNLV women's volleyball team as head coach and *istant coach, respectively. In 2014, Farokhmanesh married the former Mallory Husz. They have four children.
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.
Playing career
After going undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft, Farokhmanesh signed a deal to play for SAM M*agno Basket, an LNB Division A team based in M*agno, Switzerland.
In 2011, Farokhmanesh signed with the Austrian team WBC Raiffeisen Wels. His contract was renewed in June 2012. Farokhmanesh averaged 13.7 points per game in Austria.
On August 14, 2013, Farokhmanesh signed with SPM Shoeters Den Bosch in the Netherlands. In April, Farokhmanesh won the DBL Sixth Man of the Year award.
Coaching career
In 2014, Farokhmanesh stopped playing professionally, becoming a graduate *istant at Nebraska. In 2016, head coach Tim Miles promoted him to director of player relations and development.
On April 28, 2017, Farokhmanesh joined the Drake men's basketball program as an *istant coach for Niko Medved. On March 26, 2018, he followed Medved to become his *istant at Colorado State University.
Honors
SPM Shoeters Den Bosch
- DBL Sixth Man of the Year (1): 2014
- Dutch Supercup (1): 2013
Statistics
Regular season
References
External links
- Austrian League profile
- Northern Iowa Panthers bio