Nebraska creates full-time post for Ali Farokhmanesh

Former Iowa City West, Kirkwood and Northern Iowa basketball player Ali Farokhmanesh was named director of player relations and development for Nebraska's men's basketball program on Friday.

In this newly created position, Farokhmanesh will oversee and help manage athletes' off-court responsibilities. According to Nebraska, Farokhmanesh will create and implement a mentoring program, coordinate community outreach with the school's life skills staff, serve as an athletics department liaison and help with on-campus recruiting operations. He spent the last two seasons as Nebraska's graduate manager.

'I am really happy to add Ali Farokhmanesh to our staff on a full-time basis,' Nebraska Coach Tim Miles said in a statement. '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.'

In two seasons at Northern Iowa, Farokhmanesh guided the Panthers to two NCAA Tournament appearances and a 53-16 record. He averaged 9.7 points as a senior. In a 2010 NCAA tournament game against top-seeded Kansas, Farokhmanesh drilled a game-clinching 3-pointer. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated that week. He played four seasons internationally in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

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