Storm Lake's Jaidyn Coon Commits to Iowa Hawkeyes Basketball

Jaidyn Coon picked up a basketball in Storm Lake because he needed somewhere to put the hard parts of growing up. His parents had divorced, and the game became, in his own words, a stress reliever. "I just kept playing it and got better at it, kept having fun and then just kept practicing and now look where I am today," Coon said earlier this winter. "It's just transformed me." On April 2, that transformation reached its next chapter: the 6-foot-7 senior forward committed to play for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, becoming one of the most consequential basketball prospects northwest Iowa has produced in a generation.

Coon is a four-star prospect ranked No. 116 nationally in the 247Sports Composite and was named Iowa's 2026 Mr. Basketball after a senior season in which he averaged 22.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 53.2% from the field. He led the Storm Lake Tornadoes to the state semifinals, where he scored 36 points in a double-overtime loss to ADM, and broke the school's all-time scoring record, a mark that had stood for 56 years.

"It feels amazing," Coon told the Storm Lake Times Pilot. "I'm just extremely grateful. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. It doesn't feel real yet. I'm just so humbled and honored to represent my state."

The path to Iowa moved through Creighton first. Coon had signed with the Bluejays, but when longtime head coach Greg McDermott announced his retirement on March 23, the recruitment reopened. Drake, Nebraska and Illinois all made contact. Coon visited Iowa's campus on April 1 and committed the following day, with Iowa's defensive identity as the deciding factor.

"They take pride in their defense, and that's something I value, too," Coon said.

Iowa's coaching staff has its own Storm Lake thread. Head coach Ben McCollum grew up in the city and attended Storm Lake St. Mary's before building a nationally recognized coaching career. Coon acknowledged the hometown connection but said it played only a small role; the staff's approach, described as personable, fun and relentlessly defensive-minded, was what closed the deal. At Iowa, Coon will wear No. 0, a departure from the No. 24 he wore with the Tornadoes, which has already been claimed on Iowa's roster. He joins Ethan Harris, a 6-foot-9 four-star forward from Camas, Washington, in Iowa's 2026 recruiting class.

The arc from Storm Lake gyms to Iowa City runs directly through Tornado head coach Evan Franzmeier. When Coon was a freshman in 2022, he and fellow starter Cam Boyd were carrying the scoring load on a team that finished near the bottom of the Lakes Conference. Franzmeier, who took over formally before the 2023-24 season, recognized what set both players apart early. "They had just approached it with such a professional manner," Franzmeier said. "They come to work every single day. Every open gym, they're there. Every weight session, they are there." That consistency, built across four years in Storm Lake, is the pathway Coon leaves behind for the younger Tornadoes watching this week.

Storm Lake fans will be able to follow Coon through the Big Ten Network and Peacock when Iowa's 2026-27 season tips off this fall. For a community that has watched him grow from a freshman reserve to the state's Mr. Basketball, the Carver-Hawkeye Arena will simply be the next gym.