Lincoln – Nebraska Coach Tim Miles announced Friday that Ali Farokhmanesh has been named Director of Player Relations and Development for the Husker men’s basketball program.
“I am really happy to add Ali Farokhmanesh to our staff on a full-time basis,” Miles said. “I appreciate his efforts as our graduate assistant and know he will do a terrific job as our Director of Player Relations and Development. Ali has a terrific reputation as a player and now is building the same thing as a coach. He has a very strong connection to our guys and will do an excellent job in this role. I also want to thank our administration for helping us to keep Ali on our staff to further strengthen our efforts for Big Ten success.”
“As we look at ways to improve the program, this newly created position will not only help with our recruiting efforts, but also provide the development to help our student-athletes succeed on and off the court,” said Executive Associate Athletic Director Marc Boehm. “Ali Farokhmanesh is the perfect fit to take on this position, and we are grateful.”
Farokhmanesh will fill several roles in this newly created position. His primary duties will be to help manage and oversee the off-the court responsibilities of student-athletes. He will play a major role in creating and implementing a mentoring program. He will coordinate community outreach with Nebraska’s Life Skills staff while also serving as liaison to groups within the Department of Athletics, including the Nebraska Athletic Performance Laboratory (NAPL). He also will assist the Husker coaching staff in recruiting operations, including on-campus hosting duties.
Since ending his professional playing career, Farokhmanesh has served as a graduate manager for the Husker basketball program for the past two years. In that role, he served in daily operations of the program, working with the coaching and operations staff.
Following a decorated college career, Farokhmanesh spent four seasons playing professionally overseas in Holland, Austria and Switzerland. In 2013-14, he was the Sixth Man of the Year in the Dutch Basketball League, averaging 10.4 points, 2.0 assists and 1.0 steal per game. His best season was with SAM Massagno Basket in the Swiss league in 2010-11, where he averaged 19.5 points, 3.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game while shooting 48 percent from 3-point range.
Farokhmanesh is best known for the two seasons he spent at Northern Iowa, helping the Panthers to a 53-16 record with two NCAA Tournament appearances, including the school’s first-ever NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in 2009-10.
As a senior, he earned honorable-mention All-Missouri Valley Conference accolades, averaging 9.7 points and 1.5 rebounds per game, as UNI went 30-5, including an upset of top-seeded Kansas to reach the Sweet 16. In that game, Farokhmanesh had 16 points, including a 3-pointer with 34 seconds left to clinch the victory and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He also provided the heroics in UNI’s second-round win over UNLV, finishing with 17 points, including a 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds left for the final margin. Farokhmanesh scored in double figures 17 times as a senior, including a career-high 23 points against Old Dominion, while his 77 3-pointers were the third most in school history.
In his first season at UNI, Farokhmanesh started all 34 games and averaged 9.6 points and 1.6 assists per game en route to being named to the MVC All-Newcomer squad. He played two years of junior college basketball, earning first-team NJCAA Division II All-America honors at Kirkwood Community College, when he averaged 17 points, five assists and three rebounds per game.
Farokhmanesh received his degree in finance from Northern Iowa in 2010 and is currently studying educational administration at Nebraska. He married the former Mallory Husz in June of 2014, and the couple has a son, Tai.