I've never understood the cynicism/bitterness towards North Linn. I'll admit that the "Co-Coach" situation is kind of bogus (it happens in other sports too by the way). As a coach, I'm not sure why every staff doesn't just name someone co-coach if they can collect two wins basically. But, be that as it is, Bob Hilmer is a legendary figure in Iowa Basketball and great guy. He's also a grandfather who wanted to be able to coach with his son and coach his grandkids. Mike Hilmer is a son who wanted his dad to be around for an awesome run with his grandkids. I don't begrudge them that at all.
As far as Jake is concerned, I have no idea why people get so worked up towards him. He plays incredibly hard, with passion, and competitively the entire time he's on the floor. I would assume every fan, coach, parent would hope their teams' kids would all play like this.
Yes, his stats are kind of cartoonish, and largely a result of the 1A league they play in; a league with 19 conference games (even though the Tri-Rivers sent three teams to State, it's a pretty weak league and NL just swamps those guys; to NL's credit, they did schedule Applington-Parkersburg and Cascade this year, though Cascade got snowed out). I understand some think they run up scores and whatnot; I have no personal knowledge or experience so I can't speak to that end of it. I would say that looking at Quikstats, the majority of their games are composed of two entirely different halves. I also don't begrudge any coach for playing his starters in at least the 3rd quarter of every game, for game conditioning if nothing else.
But, His numbers are legit. If you watch any film from their league games, every steal or rebound winds up in his hands on an outlet and he's off to the races. They score a TON of points and he's normally the guy that makes the scoring pass. Not many of those other guys create for themselves; they've evolved to be in the right position, run the right lanes, spot up, etc. to score off Jake. They've made 849 FG's this year and he's scored or assisted on over half of those. If you've seen their games, that's 100% legit. At the state tournament, his teammates have made 23 FG's, he's made 18, and he has 12 assists (these are State official stats), so he's scored or assisted on 30 of 41 baskets, which is actually a higher percentage than the regular season.
So, if you want to say the majority of their games are against much inferior competition, that's fine (though they've made 2 straight championship games now and 3 straight semis and only have 2 losses in the past 3 years, both close games at State). The numbers are the numbers though, and he's clearly the best player in the 2A field, and would play for any team down here.
As for going to Upper Iowa? So? He gets to play basketball and baseball on a free ride. He's had D-1 interest in basketball, especially as the year went on, but he committed early and that's where he's going.