A few weeks ago, P.J. Fleck finished his usual Tuesday football practice duties, handled the media and then made a quiet detour across the Athletes Village courtyard. The Gophers coach slipped into the men’s basketball practice facility and watched about 20 minutes of Niko Medved’s preseason session.
“That was all I needed,” Fleck told the Pioneer Press last week.
It was the kind of brief visit that says plenty about where Fleck and Medved’s relationship stands. They’re not just two head coaches in the same athletic department. They’re friends, neighbors and, by their own descriptions, people who can lean on each other when the job gets heavy.
Medved noticed Fleck in the courtside chair, did a double take and then came over to say hello. At that point, Fleck’s football team was still working through the aftershocks of a 38-13 loss to Mississippi State on Sept.
- Medved asked if Fleck simply needed a break.
Fleck’s answer, according to Medved: “Yeah, maybe.”
“I think I said to him, you don’t need me to tell you this, but you are going to look back at this game against Mississippi State and it’s going to be the best thing that has ever happened to your team,” Medved told the Pioneer Press while at Big Ten Media Days last week.
That forecast didn’t come with instant comfort, but the Gophers did respond with Big Ten wins over Washington and Michigan before a 41-13 loss to Purdue knocked them back. Now Minnesota heads into a bye week before an Oct. 24 home game against No. 17 Iowa.
If Fleck needs another reset, Medved is right there.
Their bond has built over the past 18 months, helped in part by the fact that each has genuine interest in the other’s sport. Medved is a football fan.
Fleck follows basketball closely. Fleck talked with Medved days before he took the U job in March 2025, and after his introductory news conference, Medved went over to the football facility to watch a spring practice.
They also share more than a campus. They’re neighbors in a western suburb, the same sort of arrangement Fleck once had with former coach Richard Pitino before Pitino left for New Mexico in 2021. Fleck and Ben Johnson were cordial during Johnson’s four seasons, but that connection never seemed to carry the same closeness that Fleck had with Pitino and now appears to be building with Medved.
For Fleck, the stop in the basketball facility in September was more than a casual pop-in. He said watching Medved’s second team prepare for the season left him feeling good about what Minnesota has going on in basketball, where the Gophers are set for their first exhibition game against Omaha at 7 p.m. Thursday at The Barn.
“Watching him coach makes me feel very good about where our basketball program is at,” Fleck said. “It’s great to have a Minnesotan who loves Minnesota so much coaching our basketball team, the energy and the excitement that was poured into that practice.”
Medved said head coaches understand each other in a way that outsiders can’t.
“There is nothing like being a head coach,” Medved said. “There are certain things that maybe you can talk about and discuss and share an emotion that you know he would appreciate in a way that others maybe never would. I don’t think there is any question about that.”
The two also understand the pressures that come with trying to win at Minnesota, where resources are tighter than at many Big Ten programs. Fleck said that makes their relationship and the way the two programs support each other even more important.
“I think the connection between programs is important,” Fleck said. “I think these days with the race of NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) and where the money goes, it’s completely selfless on both sides.
I want the basketball team to succeed a ton, and I know he wants the football team to succeed a ton. I think supporting each other is the best way to do that.”
In Other News...
Gophers Trench Play Is Getting National Attention At A Crucial Time
Minnesotas trench work is drawing some national notice at just the right time, with the Rotary Club of Houston and the Lombardi Award Committee unveiling a 2026 Midseason Watchlist loaded with the countrys top linemen and linebackers. The Gophers landed two representatives on the list in offensive lineman Greg Johnson and defensive lineman Anthony Smith, a sign that both sides of the line are getting attention for how they have played this season.
For Minnesota, the recognition matters because the line has been central to how the team has handled the grind of conference play and the week-to-week injuries that test depth. The Lombardi Award, which honors the nations best college offensive or defensive lineman, will be handed out Dec. 9 in Houston, giving Johnson and Smith a chance to keep building on the kind of play that put them on the radar in the first place. [Read more 🡒]