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Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010 | 10 p.m.
UNI guard Ali Farokhmanesh signals his game winning three-point shot as he pushes his way past UNLV guard Tre'Von Willis during their first round NCAA Basketball Tournament game Thursday, March 18, 2010 at the Ford Center in Oklahoma Ctiy. UNI won the game 69-66 on a last second three-point shot.
Hitting a 25-foot 3-pointer to bury UNLV in the first round of the NCAA tournament last March earned Northern Iowa senior guard Ali Farokhmanesh villain status in Rebels lore.
Now, the graduated gunner's family will have a more concrete tie with UNLV.
His mother, Cindy Fredrick, on Wednesday was named the sixth head coach in Rebels volleyball history.
Fredrick brings 24 years of head coaching experience to Las Vegas, and last year coached Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Her husband, Dr. Mashallah Farokhmanesh, has been an assistant on her staff throughout her entire career.
The other stops in Fredrick's career include Weber State (1985-89), Washington State (1989-2004) and Iowa (2004-08). She's led teams to 10 NCAA tournament appearances, with the first coming in 1988 at Weber State. The next nine were all at Washington State, including a trip to the Sweet 16 and two Elite Eight berths.
Fredrick was hired by UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood, who held the same post at Washington State while she was there from 1988-93.
As for Fredrick's only child, after hitting the game-winner against UNLV and then a crucial clinching trey to upset top-seeded Kansas two days later, he now plays professionally in Switzerland for SAM Massagno Basket.
Actually, if you knew anything about Cindy, you'd be very excited about this hire. She quit her job at Iowa and took the job at Luther so she and her husband would have time to follow Ali's senior year at UNI. He's their only child, so UNLV will get the benefit of Cindy's full attention.
She did a good job of pulling a moribund Iowa volleyball program out of the dumps, although with UNI and Iowa State both national volleyball powerhouses, it was #3 in the state of Iowa.
why are you so invested in this hire discosis? Livengood has yet to do UNLV wrong. If he hires a bust it reflects poorly on him regardless of their previous ties. Give it a rest.
@Discosis: In case you haven't figured to out yet, nobody cares about UNLV Girl's Volleyball. It doesn't matter who the coach is. If they win, cool. If the girls go to class and get an education, even better. But don't expect a message board to light up because you don't like the new coach.