Forty minutes will be Bennett Stirtz’s norm for Iowa men’s basketball

Welcome back to The Bounce, my semi-regular look at Iowa men’s basketball and other things in the sport.

Basketballs bounce, you see. I didn’t spend a lot of time naming this feature.

Anyway, let’s start with this: Senior point guard Bennett Stirtz played all 40 minutes for Iowa Friday in its 77-58 win over Western Illinois. That’s not headline news, but it’s something you just don’t see in these games between major-majors (hat tip to Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22”) and mid-majors.

Especially in a game you led by 22 points with 1:54 remaining.

However, Iowa Coach Ben McCollum rides with his point guards and always has, and has a track record of getting them to do big things. While McCollum has rotated nine other players in and out of the games, Stirtz stays. Get used to that.

Asked after Friday’s game if Stirtz gets tired, McCollum said. “I don't ask him. I don't want to ask him. I don't know.

“He's used to it. He's done it for three years now. What is he, 22 years old? I'm 40-something and I probably couldn't do that. But when you're 22 why can't you? You only get so many games in your college career.”

Stirtz is averaging 38 minutes through two games, which ties him for fourth in the nation and ties him with Houston’s Milos Uzan for first among major-major players. That number will probably go up instead of down.

Last season at Drake, Stirtz led the nation in minutes per game with 39.4. He played the full 45 minutes in the Bulldogs’ five overtime games, all wins.

It led me to ask McCollum this Friday: Why don’t more coaches have their top players play so many minutes?

“I don't know,” he said. “Maybe everybody just follows everybody else. I don't know. I haven't figured that out, to be honest.”

It wasn’t just Stirtz at Drake. Teammate Mitch Mascari was second in the nation with 38.5 minutes per game.

The medias (timeouts) are like a half-an-hour at this level,“ McCollum exaggerated. ”And when you call a timeout, it’s another 35 minutes. So you get so many breaks.

“When you're a college athlete, you might as well be in shape. I didn't like to come out, but my coach took me out.”

Stirtz, by the way, has 43 points, 13 assists, 6 steals and just 4 turnovers through two games.

You never know. In my mind, Tate Sage was more a candidate to redshirt his freshman season for Iowa rather than immediately become a rotation player.

Sage is a 6-foot-7, 210-pound, 18-year-old guard from Weatherford, Okla. He originally signed with Drake when McCollum was the Bulldogs’ coach, then followed McCollum to Iowa.

Sage averaged 13.1 points as a senior for Weatherford High. Not a lot of players who average 13.1 points as a senior go right into a major-major’s rotation.

Friday, Sage played 24 minutes and played well. He was only 1-of-6 from 3-point range, but he showed no hesitation in taking good, open shots. With his build and confidence, he does not look like a freshman.

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“We thought he was pretty good for Drake,” McCollum said, “but we didn't realize he was this good. We knew he's good, but we thought would take him a year.

“He's got a little edge to him. He's a 6-7 two-guard, so he's got good length. He's only going to get better. … He's got great energy. He's a good competitor. And I think if we're going to be at our best, he's going to need to be pretty good.

“Our freshman class is all like that. … the freshmen are very confident.

“They’re not afraid of the moment. They can go into the game and be just fine.”

OK, but why did Sage catch McCollum’s eye?

“Winning,” said the coach. “He won a state title.”

That was as a senior. Weatherford was state runner-up two other years with Sage playing.

“He (played with) a big kid, Oklahoma defensive end (CJ Nickson). And then he had his brother, Ethan, a twin brother who’s at Pitt State, Division II school. And then they had a point guard that was really good. So they were just loaded, and then (Sage) would play half the game, and so they didn’t need him to score.

“But that's why he translates so easy, because he doesn't need to be the star to be effective. That's what makes him translate to this level and translate up levels consistently.”

Ethan Sage, by the way, is a freshman starter at Pittsburg (Kan.) State. He had 19 points and 18 rebounds over his first two games after averaging 12.8 points and 8.0 rebounds at Weatherford High.

It took one game for a Fran McCaffery-coached team to set Penn’s single-game scoring record.

In his debut as the Quakers’ coach Friday in Philadelphia after spending the last 15 seasons as Iowa’s coach, McCaffery’s team beat Division III team Rowan 119-72.

Senior Ethan Roberts scored 28 points for Penn.

“I know Coach can put me in the right spots, and it’s a dream playing with these guys and for this staff,” Roberts told the Daily Pennsylvanian. “I’m really just grateful going into each game.”

Penn lost at defending Patriot League champion American University Sunday afternoon, 84-78. It plays at Providence Tuesday night.

Former Iowa All-America Luka Garza had the best game as a Boston Celtic Sunday, with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in just 16 minutes of his team’s 111-107 win at Orlando.

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The 16 points matched his high as a Celtic, who he joined as a free agent after spending the last three seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He is averaging 5.9 points.

The NBA G League opened its season Friday. Former Iowa player Payton Sandfort began his pro career with 6 points in 14 minutes for the Oklahoma City Blue in their win at Rio Grande Valley. The Blue’s next game is Tuesday morning in Oklahoma City. Yes, Tuesday morning.

Keshon Gilbert is a pro rookie out of Iowa State. He scored a team-high 24 points off the bench for the Capital City Go-Go in their win at Long Island. Capital City is the G League’s affiliate of the Washington Wizards, who had Gilbert on their NBA Summer League team in July.

Curtis Jones, Gilbert’s teammate for two years at Iowa State, totaled 38 points and 10 assists this weekend for the Grand Rapids Gold in a pair of wins. Jones is on a two-way contract with the Denver Nuggets.

The aforementioned Mascari from Drake is playing for the G League’s Stockton Kings.