Kohler recaps great Iowa visit
It was the first big basketball recruiting weekend of the fall and Fran McCaffery and his staff put their best foot forward with one of the hottest prospects in the country.
Coming off a massive 53 point performance at the recent Pangos event, Jaxon Kohler has rocketed up the list of some of the best college basketball programs in the country. In the last week, both Michigan State and Illinois entered the recruiting fray for the four star big man.
But, Iowa had jumped in earlier after offering coming off the 6-foot-9 big man’s strong performance in the month of July on the AAU circuit. The Hawkeyes secured an official visit the first weekend of the college football season and hit him with the double barreled punch of a loud Kinnick Stadium filled with Hawkeye fans and the chance for Kohler to visit with national player of the year, Luka Garza.
“The Iowa visit was great,” Kohler said. “It was a really special experience for me and one that I will never forget.”
What stood out to the four star big man was the hospitality from the coaches and the chemistry of the Iowa players on and off the floor.
“The entire coaching staff and Coach McCaffery were great people. They were really supportive and fun to talk to,” he said. “I got to meet some of the players on the team and they were great dudes. They have great chemistry together on and off the floor. I was able to hang out with them all weekend that they were great to me.”
The highlights of the visit were being at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday where the crowd left a strong impression.
“It was crazy. I had never been to a football game with that many people.”
Then there was the opportunity to watch the basketball team workout twice over the weekend. He also happened to have very good company to watch practice in former Hawkeye Luka Garza, a player who has a similar game to Kohler.
“It was a really special experience to talk to him. I was hoping I would just get to talk to him for a few minutes and it ended up being way more than that. He spent a lot of time with me and told me that he had watched film of me and that he was a fan and that meant the world to me,” Kohler said.
Kohler said after watching practice he could see how he could fit in very well at Iowa.
The Hawkeye coaches are planning to make a trip to watch him practice on Thursday, the first day that those visits will be allowed. Kohler is set to see Michigan State this weekend and then USC is another school he confirmed he will visit. He isn’t sure which schools will get the final two visits, but he mentioned Kansas, Oklahoma, BYU, Nebraska, and Illinois.
He said he plans to make all five visits and could potentially take unofficial visits after that. But, the hope is that once Kohler makes his five official visits that he will make a decision and he confirmed Iowa will definitely be in the mix.