Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz has tormented high-majors, and now he plays for one

IOWA CITY — Those who watched Drake men’s basketball last season know. Those that didn’t will find out.

Bennett Stirtz will give Iowa’s men’s team something it hasn’t had a lot of over the years, a point guard who usually will be the focal point of the game.

The last Hawkeye to average 20 points and six assists per game was Andre Woolridge in 1997. Stirtz averaged 19.2 and 5.7 as a Drake junior last season, numbers that may be deceivingly low since he played on a team that averaged the fewest possessions per game in the nation.

His Bulldogs, coached by new Iowa boss Ben McCollum, went 31-4. Stirtz scored at least 21 points in each of Drake’s last four games, its semifinal and final wins in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament and its two games in the NCAA tourney. He played 40 minutes in all of them.

He was the MVC’s Player of the Year, and its Most Outstanding Player in the league tourney.

Stirtz is in Year 4 with McCollum, the first two at Division II Northwest Missouri State. His won-lost record as a collegian is 91-12.

He could have been preparing for Wednesday night’s NBA draft this week. Instead, he was practicing with the Hawkeyes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“It was actually a big decision, bigger than people would have thought,” Stirtz said. “Right after the season I was leaning to go pro, but Mac and other guys here somehow got me back here.”

The 6-foot-4 Stirtz is from Liberty, Mo., 95 miles from Northwest Missouri State in Maryville. McCollum was in on Stirtz early. He expected Division I coaches to join the recruiting fray.

“We offered him maybe in February (in Stirtz’s junior year of high school), and I think it was either May or April that he committed,” McCollum said. “Division I saw him, and they didn’t want him. He told them if ‘If I go to Division II, I’m going to Northwest.’ We were patient, waited and he came to Northwest.

“Honestly, I thought he was a high-major guy. I really did when we recruited him, and obviously now he is. It was a fun process to recruit him. It got easier to recruit him to Drake and even easier to recruit him to the University of Iowa.”

Stirtz will be 22 in October. Far more 18- and 19-year-olds will be drafted by NBA teams Wednesday than college seniors. Asked if sees himself as a future NBA player, he replied “For sure.”

It wasn’t always that way.

“It was COVID, so a lot of coaches didn’t get to see me,” he said, “and I played on a low AAU team. I’ve made a huge step since then.

“I feel like when I was in high school the (college) coaches didn’t believe in me. I think they labeled it for me, that I was just a D-II guy. Luckily, Mac believed in me and he’s helped me create steps.”

Stirtz really doesn’t need to prove he can play at the highest level of college ball given he and his Drake team beat Vanderbilt, Kansas State and Missouri last season. Besides the predictable answer of getting stronger, he gave a somewhat surprising response to what he needs to do in his year at Iowa.

“Probably just creating for my own,” Stirtz said, “and not being too unselfish at points. I feel like I was last year a little bit.”

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Stirtz doesn’t sound like someone looking to lead the nation in scoring. He said the Hawkeyes are “bigger than yourself. That’s pretty much it. Keep things short and simple. You’re not playing for your own success, but for the team’s success.”

His short scouting report on himself is “Pass-first guard, gets teammates involved, and can score really good with ball screens.”

Many a major-college team had high roster turnover in the offseason and isn’t sure just how much they’ll get out of the most-important position, the point guard. Iowa has a 19-point, 6-assist guy who led the nation in minutes played per game in Stirtz, entering his fourth season with McCollum.

“That’s my dude,” Stirtz said, “and he helps me out with so much. We’ve been through a lot together and it’s going to be a fun last year.”

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