Koch struggled in the early portion of the year, but caught fire in the back half of the season to play a key role in Iowa's Elite Eight run.
Editor's Note: HawkeyeRoundtable.com has been releasing season grades for every Iowa men's and women's basketball player since April. Be sure to check out the rest of the grades if you missed one!
When Fran McCaffery was fired as Iowa men's basketball head coach in March 2025, only two players from his final team remained with new head coach Ben McCollum.
Jacob Koch, who joined the program as a walk-on before the ill-fated 2024-25 campaign, was one of them. That decision didn't shock anyone as he is an Iowa City native, but the rest of the roster was in limbo.
McCollum encouraged Pryce Sandfort, Josh Dix, and Cooper Koch (then in the transfer portal) to return to Iowa during his introductory press conference, but only one of those players stayed - Koch. Koch announced his decision to come back to Iowa just five days after McCollum was introduced as head coach and left this message on social media.
“After speaking with Coach McCollum, I believe his vision for the men’s basketball team is one that aligns with mine,” he said.
One year later, it's safe to say Koch and McCollum's visions to rebuild Iowa did indeed align with one another. The Hawkeyes made an unexpected run to the Elite Eight as a No. 9 seed, and they might not have done so without Koch's efforts.
Here's his 2025-26 season grade:
The rundown
Koch entered college as a highly-anticipated legacy recruit for McCaffery in 2024-25, but health issues held him out for most of the year. Koch took a redshirt as a result and came back healthy for the 2025-26 season.
The Peoria, Illinois native quickly earned McCollum's trust and was in the starting lineup for the entire season. Despite previously playing for an offensive-first coach in McCaffery during his first year of college ball, his ability to quickly adapt to McCollum's tenacious defensive style was probably one of the main reasons why Koch was a mainstay in the starting lineup.
Not only could Koch do the dirty work on defense, he was also a capable three-point shooter. Few players on this Hawkeye team had a better shooting stroke than Koch, but his problem was just getting the ball to drop in the net. There were stretches of Big Ten play where Koch would go ice cold from long distance, and some fans even questioned if he should remain in the starting lineup.
But when the lights were bright, Koch shined. An 18-point outing (five triples) in a loss to Penn State on Feb. 28 is where Koch's season really began to turn for the better, and he followed that up with two more big performances against No. 9 Nebraska and in the Big Ten tournament against Maryland.
Koch registered double figures in two of Iowa's four NCAA tournament games, but each time the Hawkeyes needed a bucket, he delivered. When top-seeded Florida appeared to snatch the momentum back late in the second half, Koch fired back with a deep triple to give Iowa the lead.
The Hawks would go on to win that game and advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999 (Koch's dad J.R. was on that team). Koch was 3-for-8 from distance in the victory over rival Nebraska, but all three treys came at crucial junctures.
The modest stat line of 7.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game doesn't show much, but this was only Koch's first full season of college basketball. Inconsistencies were expected from time to time, but there's just so much to like in Koch's game.
Koch will only get better next season, where a likely-raucous Carver-Hawkeye Arena will once again be able to scream "COOOOOP" when Koch makes a play.
Grade: B
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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io