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Recruiting is the lifeblood of any major college athletics team, but following it closely as a fan can sometimes be difficult and can often be time consuming. We’ll try and condense all the recruiting news you can use into this bi-weekly (or more often since we are in Uncertain Times and there aren’t actual sports going on) post. It’ll include updates on current commits, including stats from their high school games, as well as news on players the Badgers are still pursuing. Let’s get down to business!
New offer
- 2024 wing Cooper Koch (Peoria, Ill.) out of Peoria Notre Dame is the latest prospect to receive an offer from the Badgers and Greg Gard. He is currently unranked by all of the recruiting service, but that’s normal for players from a class that isn’t close to enrolling in college. Koch already has offers from Bradley, Iowa, Wake Forest and Western Illinois to go along with his Badgers offer. Rivals notes that Illinois and Purdue are showing interest too.
Congratulationsd to 2024 IE 6’8” forward Cooper Koch on receiving an offer from University of Wisconsin!! #IEFamily pic.twitter.com/2fmGErR3d8
— Indiana Elite (@IndianaElite) August 2, 2021
Standing at 6-foot-7 and weighing a bit over 200 pounds, Koch already has good size for a rising sophomore. His father, J.R., is 6-foot-10 and played basketball at Iowa before having a six-year career overseas, so there is probably still room for some growth. The older Koch was a teammate of current Wisconsin assistant coach Dean Oliver while in Iowa City which should help the Badgers develop a good relationship.
The only highlights I could find were these from his eighth grade year, but you can definitely see the talent that Koch possesses. Being taller than just about everyone he played against led him to scoring inside with ease, but he did show a nice ability to finish through contact.
What impressed me the most was some of the reads he made while passing the ball. He hit cutters, found open shooters from the high post and didn’t panic when defenses swarmed him. Playing with Indiana Elite on the AAU circuit, Koch will have plenty of chances to get better and I’m excited to watch his progress.