Iowa basketball forward Cooper Koch got good news earlier this week.
Cooper’s father, J.R. Koch, confirmed to the Des Moines Register that Cooper’s medical-hardship waiver had been approved by the Big Ten Conference and that he has four years of college eligibility remaining. Koch will play the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season as a redshirt freshman.
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The 6-foot-8 forward played in 10 games last season, averaging 4.6 points and 2.1 rebounds per game while shooting 48.4% from the field and 42.9% from 3-point distance. But, his season was shut down after a Jan. 3 game at Wisconsin with Koch dealing with a collapsed lung.
Though he briefly entered the transfer portal, Koch chose to return and became the lone scholarship player that opted for a return to the Hawkeyes.
“When we were at Northwest (Missouri State), we had a bunch of guys like him – 6-8, can shoot, can rebound, can eventually guard multiple positions, can post if you get a mismatch. Those are the kind of kids that have a lot of success in our system. And his personality, he’s got a good, energetic personality that wants to be at Iowa. And that’s a big deal for us going forward,” McCollum told the Register in a recent interview.
Koch inked with Iowa in the 2024 class as a four-star signee, as the No. 86 player nationally, as the No. 16 power forward and as the No. 2 player from the state of Illinois.
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa basketball forward sees medical-hardship waiver approved
