PEORIA — Bradley basketball associate head coach Jimmie Foster is moving on to become the top assistant at Colorado State under the newly hired Ali Farokhmanesh.
"I had a good run here, and there's a good group of guys coming back," Foster said. "Don't want to leave those guys, but this is a good challenge for me."
Foster was a coach at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when Farokhmanesh played at the junior college.
"I helped him out along the way, and it's come full circle," Foster said. "He asked me to join him, and I felt like for him to ask me to be one of his guys, it's pretty amazing."
Foster joined Bradley head coach Brian Wardle's staff as part of the program rebuild when Wardle took over in 2015. He came into the program with fellow assistants Drew Adams and Rick Karius as Wardle built a coaching staff that helped him bring the program to a pair of NCAA Tournament bids and three straight NITs.
"It's really rewarding to me when one of our coaches moves up the coaching ladder," Wardle said. "Jimmie is a great friend and has been an integral part of building the programs at both Green Bay and Bradley with me over the past 15 years.
"I know he will continue to bring energy and value to the staff at Colorado State and we wish him nothing but the best."
Foster is credited with helping in the recruiting of six all-Missouri Valley Conference forwards during his decade-long tenure, and helped develop elite big men like Elijah Childs and Rienk Mast — and seven MVC All-Freshman Team honorees.
The Milwaukee native has been part of a Bradley program that has earned two NCAA Tournament bids, three trips to the NIT and won the program's first Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship in 27 years.
He has helped Bradley recruit, over the years, past, budding and future stars like Darrell Brown, Darius Hannah, Jaquan Johnson and Montana Wheeler.
"Development-wise with Elijah and Mast and obviously watching how Ahmet (Jonovic) has grown has been rewarding," Foster said. "But that's those guys, doing all the working in the gym.
"I think the moment I will remember the most is that first Valley tournament championship game, down 16-18 points in the game, and we found a way to win that game. That group went 5-27 as freshmen. We were so proud of that team."
He will set out Monday to help Farokhmanesh recruit and coach at Colorado State, which went 26-10 in the 2024-25 season, won the Mountain West Tournament and went to the NCAA Tournament, where it beat No. 5 Memphis and lost to No. 4 Maryland, 71-71.
Colorado State beat Bradley, 66-61, in the 2021 Paradise Jam tournament in the Virgin Islands.
"Peoria has been great," Foster said. ...
