By Mike Hlas

IOWA CITY, Iowa – On Tuesday, J.R. Koch said “I’m not a.big stat guy.” But even he had to admit “Oh, that is weird” when he saw this one:

J.R. Koch: 12 points in Iowa’s 1999 win over Arkansas that got the Hawkeyes into the Sweet 16. Cooper Koch: 12 points in Iowa’s 2026 win over Florida that got the Hawkeyes into the Sweet 16 for the first time since that game in ’99.

Cooper is J.R.’s son and a second-year freshman forward who has started all 35 games for Iowa this season. He is averaging 7.8 points and shooting 40.4 percent from 3-point distance (61-of-151). He had a shooting slump in February, but is 24-of-43 (55.8 percent) from deep over his last seven games. The latest was his 4-of-6 showing in the Hawkeyes’ second-round 73-72 upset of Florida Sunday.

His father, a real estate broker in Peoria, Ill., was a senior starting forward on the ’99 team.

“It was nice being known for that,” J.R. said, “but it was awful at the same time. Our expectations for the program are higher than that. The fact that we were the last team to do it — it was nice to get the recognition, but it’s not where we wanted the program to be.”

Cooper was aware of the Hawkeyes’ Sweet 16 drought before he committed to Fran McCaffery’s Iowa program.

“He told me he was going to get us back to the Sweet 16,” J.R. said. “I thought ‘Yeah, kid,’ knowing how hard is at that level and that you need a little luck along the way.”

In this case, the son knew best. Even if the path to the second week of an NCAA tourney wasn’t one either he or his father envisioned.

McCaffery was fired a year ago last week, and Ben McCollum was hired the following week to replace him. The playing style would shift from McCaffery’s uptempo offense to McCollum’s more-deliberate way, with a heavier emphasis on defense. All of McCaffery’s scholarship players at Iowa with eligibility remaining — including Sandfort and Josh Dix — transferred elsewhere.

Cooper was the only one of those who attended McCollum’s introductory press conference at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. There, McCollum asked Hawkeye people to encourage some of last season’s Hawkeyes to stay. “See if we can get Pryce, Cooper, Josh (back),” the coach said. Dix went to Creighton to be close to his mother in Council Bluffs. She had cancer and died last month. Sandfort now is the leading scorer for Nebraska, the Hawkeyes’ Thursday opponent in Houston.

Cooper, who played in 10 games last season before taking a medical redshirt, also went into the transfer portal shortly before McCollum was hired.

“That was strongly suggested to us for multiple reasons,” J.R. said. “You didn’t want to go in after the new coach was hired.

“Another team offered him so much more money, but he said ‘No, I’m interested in talking to Coach Mac.’ ”

“I was kind of mad at some people there,” J.R. said about the coaching-change, “but we started studying Coach Mac, watching old videos of Northwest Missouri State and tuning into Drake’s (NCAA) games. Though it was a distinctly different style, it became a very easy decision.”

An easy decision, but not an easy transition.

“It was hard,” J.R. said. “It was an entirely new coaching staff and a new team, a new style. He had all those guys from Drake, and he didn’t have to re-teach them a lot of things.

“Coop called me and said ‘I don’t know, Dad.’ He was struggling early on. But you could see the tide changing, and he got a little more comfortable. It just took time, and Coach was patient with him. Now there’s been so much growth. He’s putting the ball on the deck, getting in the lane and spinning and hitting his shot. I’m incredibly excited for the next phase.”

The excitement of the present, of course, is all this week is about for the Koch family. After just getting home from Tampa for the first two rounds of the NCAAs, they head to Houston for Thursday’s game. And with them comes the support of a lot of people, including J.R.’s college teammates, people like Jess Settles, Dean Oliver, Ryan Luehrsmann and Kent McCausland.

“Kent probably will be sitting next to me at the game Thursday,” J.R. said.

Fifth-seed Iowa rallied from a 47-34 second-half deficit to beat 4-seed Arkansas 82-72 in the second round of the NCAAs in Denver 27 years ago. A 16-0 run spurred by three of McCausland’s five 3-pointers was symbolic of the many sudden second-half scoring blitzes Iowa had in Davis’ tenure. But many Iowa fans in the late 1990s felt things had gotten stale in the program though it was still winning Big Ten records. A primary reason was the Hawkeyes six straight NCAA second-round losses between 1989 and 1997.

Before the 1998-99 season, Iowa Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby announced that season would be Davis’ last at Iowa. He spoke at a team meeting before the season.

“He said ‘You younger-class guys, let me know if there’s a coach we should be considering.’ Kent McCausland and I stood up and said ‘This meeting is about this year’s team. You should get out of here.’

“The seniors sort of said ‘Let’s go, game on. We’re doing this for Coach.’ ”

Iowa didn’t have an All-Big Ten player. J.R.’s 10.4 points a game was second to sophomore guard Oliver’s 11.9. Sixth-year forward Settles’ 4.8 rebounds per game were enough to be team-high.

“My junior year was when we probably were the most-talented,” said J.R., “but we weren’t a team. When I was a senior, our senior group epitomized a team. We accepted our roles, like this year’s group are doing with Coach McCollum. We were guys who did our jobs and enjoyed each other’s company. I see that and a lot of parallels with Coach’s group.”

J.R. said he got over 300 texts and messages on other platforms during and after Iowa’s win over Florida Sunday, including many from former Hawkeyes. “Andre Woolridge (whose last Iowa season was 1996-97) texted me. He wasn’t even on that (’99) team, and I haven’t talked to him in years.”

Those former Hawkeyes are middle-aged men who know it’s more thrilling to see their children do well than themselves.

“This is awesome,” J.R. said. “It’s pretty special, man.”