Bennett Stirtz, Other Key Transfers Could Spark Iowa Basketball Turnaround

The Iowa Hawkeyes have a few transfers on the roster. It’s not much of a surprise, considering the nature of college sports. Fran McCaffery was fired after a 7-13 record in the Big Ten, and it led to an exodus of Hawkeyes into the Transfer Portal. Luckily, Ben McCollum found a few replacements.

ESPN recently looked at the top transfers in college basketball and explained the fit for each player with their new team, highlighting three of Iowa’s top new players in the process.

Of course, the big prize was Bennett Stirtz, the second-ranked player in ESPN’s article. Stirtz followed McCollum from Northwest Missouri State to Drake and now to Iowa. There’s a lot to like about the former Missouri Valley Player of the Year, though the transition to the Big Ten will be a significant test.

Naturally, the familiarity between Stirtz and his head coach works in the Hawkeyes' favor. It allows Stirtz to have more freedom in the offense, which should allow the team to hit the ground running next season.

Alvaro Folgueiras was the next new Hawkeye mentioned, though down at No. 54 on the list. Still, the 6-foot-9 forward is a stretch shooter who averaged 14.1 points for Robert Morris and shot 41.3% from 3.

Then there’s Brendan Hausen, a 2-guard who excels in catch-and-shoot situations from behind the arc. Unlike the two mentioned before him, Hausen comes in from a Power 5 program at Kansas State and carries over a 39% three-point shooting percentage to Iowa.

There are other pieces to the puzzle for Iowa, and while getting bodies on the roster was critical for McCollum in his first offseason with the program, it’s also clear he went in with a plan to surround Stirtz with capable shooting options. Whether or not that effort results in a quick turnaround and a return to the NCAA Tournament remains to be seen, but it is shaping up promisingly.