As he shared on Sunday morning, Iowa freshman forward Cooper Koch plans to withdraw his name from the transfer portal and stay with the Hawkeyes under Ben McCollum. Premium subscribers knew to expect Koch to return.
"After speaking with Coach McCollum, I believe his vision for the men's basketball team is one that aligns with mine," Koch said in a statement on social media. "With that being said, I have decided to withdraw my name from the transfer portal and stay HOME. Go Hawks!"
A legacy Hawkeye as the son of JR who played under Dr. Tom Davis in the 90s, Koch played in just ten games before being sidelined with an undisclosed medical issue this season. Prior to being forced to sit out, the 6'8" forward scored 4.6 points and added 2.1 rebounds in 13.6 minutes per game. He is expected to receive a medical redshirt and will have four years of eligibility remaining.
Koch would have likely been a key fixture in the rotation this season, had he been healthy.
"It's not been easy for him," Fran McCaffery said at the time. "I really feel for him because he's a wonderful kid and a really good player. We could really use him. He desperately wants to be out there. But we're on top of his health situation, which is the most important thing."
Prior to the season, hopes were high for the former four-star recruit to not only contribute, but be an important part of Iowa's efforts to return to the NCAA Tournament. Coming out of Metamora High School, Koch was known as one of the top shooters in the 2024 recruiting class.
"A lot of times when guys are great shooters, that's what they're called. He's a shooter," McCaffery said. "I remember I went to see him out west, and he had eight threes in a row, that kind of thing. You remember, he is 6'8", so he can score inside. He does offensive rebound. He can post up. So he is a three-level scorer."
Koch is one of three players that McCollum gave a shout out to in his introductory presser on Tuesday-
"One thing we can start with -- I don't see a ton of the players -- is see if we can get Pryce (Sandfort), Cooper (Koch), Josh (Dix), see if we can get them some support as well," McCollum said. "Maybe just text them or tweet them or anything like that and get them excited about coming back to the University of Iowa and making this thing grow. That would be good support to start."
Stay tuned with Hawkeye Beacon to follow along with Dix and Sandfort's looming decisions, as well as McCollum's further roster construction.
