'PND is home': Peoria is a proving ground for this elite basketball recruit

PEORIA — This wasn’t just any regular-season high school boys basketball game on a warmer than usual December night.

Student sections from Peoria Notre Dame and Richwoods packed into the bleachers, going back and forth. Chants of "Scoreboard" and "You can’t do that" echoed through the gym. The Kitchen was alive and nearly deafening to anyone in attendance.

Cooper Koch had gotten his first real experience of the PND-Richwoods rivalry.

“It’s the best atmosphere I’ve ever played in,” the sophomore said following a 52-45 loss to the visiting Knights on Friday. “Fans were great for both sides. It was the biggest game I’ve ever played in, too.

“It was fun to step up and meet the occasion.”

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Koch's 19-point effort against the Knights was a career high, coming on 8-for-12 shooting to go with four rebounds, a steal and a block. He also showed his range, hitting a pair of first-quarter 3-pointers 44 seconds apart to help erase a four-point deficit.

Koch, who is listed at 6-foot-8, is a bona fide big-time college prospect, holding scholarship offers from Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, Bradley, Wake Forest and Western Illinois. However, he doesn’t get too caught up in the recruiting process.

“I try to not think about it as much,” he said. “I watch the games of the teams that have offered me and stuff. When an opportunity comes, I’ll go and visit (the school), see how I like it.”

Koch’s dad, J.R. Koch, says that his son keeps things concerning his future very middle-of-the-road.

“He doesn’t get too high,” the former NBA second-round draft pick and Iowa standout said. “He’s very even keeled. … It’s what you want your kid to have the opportunity to do. I’m proud of him.”

In the past, top Peoria prospects such as D.J. Richardson (Peoria High to Findlay Prep), Bobo Drummond (Peoria High to LaLumiere) and Adam Miller (Manual to Chicago Morgan Park) have left the River City for programs that provided more national exposure. Even Koch’s former PND teammate, Lathan Sommerville, moved in August to a Georgia prep school with quite of few college offers in tow.

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That, however, won’t be the case for the younger Koch, who plays AAU for Indiana Elite.

“PND is home,” J.R. Koch said. “… It’s where he wants to be, and that’s where he’ll be.”

And with Koch staying put, Irish coach Tom Lacher gets this season and two more to help his starting forward reach his full potential.

Lacher says despite limited practice and prep time during the spring’s pandemic-shortened season, Koch hit the ground running as a freshman. The game didn’t move too fast for him, according to Lacher, even though Koch had made the jump from eighth-grade basketball to playing varsity in a physical Big 12 Conference.

Lacher likes his ability to catch and shoot, thinks Koch is an "outstanding passer" and has the potential to be an "elite defender."

“He’s a young man that obviously has a lot of natural talent,” the 11-season coach said. “Anybody can see that, but his basketball IQ is really, really high.

“We play against men in the Big 12 and he was a year out of junior high. He got his feet wet and probably realized, ‘Hey, I really, really can play at this level and be effective.’ "

Two aspects of Koch’s game that still need some fine-tuning, according to Lacher, are his confidence in his ability to play on the perimeter, especially creating for his teammates off the dribble. Plus, Koch will need to show he can produce his own mid-range game.

“He’s got to get used to it because he’s never really done it,” Lacher said of making plays off the bounce. “I think that’s the next stage of the evolution of his game.”

Koch, who Lacher calls a "flat out hard worker," says he’s really been working on his vertical as well as his athleticism.

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Koch's scoring has even seen a bit of an uptick from last season in PND’s first four games. He scored 13 points in the season-opener against Plano, then added 12 points versus Marion the next day.

“Obviously, my shot and ball handling,” Koch said of what else in his game needs improving, “so I can play on the perimeter more.”

The Irish (3-1), who are ranked No. 3 in Class 3A, have the depth and experience to bounce back from the Richwoods loss. Four senior starters — Juan Madrigal, Nelson Reynolds, David Williams and Colin Schuler — give PND an awfully tough core.

Now, it’s just a matter of putting all those parts together.

“We do have a lot of everything,” Cooper Koch said. “We got shooters. We got (players) who handle the ball and we got (players) who can drive and finish.”

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA basketball: Peoria Notre Dame's Cooper Koch continues to improve