All things being equal, Cooper Koch would have rather been playing basketball.

Instead in early March after his high school season ended earlier than he’d hoped, Koch and his father, former Hawkeye J.R. Koch, went on a tour of schools in the Big Ten that had offered scholarships. That tour included stops in Iowa City, Champaign, West Lafayette, Bloomington, and Madison.

“I think what I learned from that tour was all the teams had different styles. All the coaches are great and all the schools have great campuses and I’m looking forward to making a decision,” Koch said.

While he’s not feeling any pressure to make a decision, the 6-foot-8 forward in the Class of 2024 wants to make his college choice as soon as this fall.

“I kind of want to make my decision so I can focus on getting better as a basketball player, so I am looking at making a decision before the start of my basketball season.”

Koch says he may try to make another round of visits to schools during a break in his AAU schedule. He says that the school recruiting him the hardest right now are: Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Indiana. He also indicated that he is still open to other schools.

One school that obviously will be in the running to land the talented forward is Iowa. His father was a standout player for Dr. Tom Davis and Cooper grew up attending the Hawkeye basketball camps in the summer that are run by Fran McCaffery.

He was paying attention to the Hawkeyes this season and the player development that Koch continues to see stands out to him.

“I think Fran McCaffery is one of the most underrated coaches in the country in terms of developing players. He took guys like Luka (Garza) and Keegan Murray and made them into the best players in the country.”