Iowa Big Man Named to Preseason All-Big Ten

When the decade-and-a-half Fran McCaffery era in Iowa City came to an end this past spring, many onlookers and fans alike wondered when, if at all, the Iowa Hawkeyes' basketball program would again find consistency in competing in one of the country's most hard-nosed conferences.

Yet upon Ben McCollum's hire soon thereafter, worries started to fade away fast, given his younger approach to the game and steadfast success in piecing together a roster for the fall season. Now, less than two months out from his inaugural first tip-off, the team's point guard and expected floor general has been awarded prestigious B10 honors.

Bennett Stirtz, the junior guard that came with Coach McCollum in his transition from Drake, averaged 19.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists last season for the Bulldogs, shooting a scorching 49.8% from the field in the process. These statistics alone - staggering, even in the context of a less competitive conference - should be enough to get analysts excited. But combine them with the fact that he's still playing under the same coach that nurtured them at his previous school? You've got a tried-and-true recipe for success, one worthy of the preemptive honors Stirtz has been given.

To boot, last year's Drake team wasn't a slouch, despite playing most of their season in the Missouri Valley Conference (which they won.) In fact, in the NCAA Tournament, the 11-seeded Bulldogs upset the favorite Missouri Tigers with ease in the first round, 67-57. Stirtz was the team's primary contributor, tallying 21 points and four assists against one of the SEC's most notoriously aggressive teams.

Stirtz' ability to perform against rugged defenses will be a crucial quality to carry over his incoming time as Hawkeye, given the B10's reputation for score-stopping philosophies across the board. Having an experienced scorer, familiar with his coach's system, who can set your team apart with his ability to facilitate points is the sort of thing that separates a good team and a great team in the Big Ten.

And while being named to a preseason all-conference team doesn't guarantee a player's place on the actual incarnation of that team during the season, it's a good sign of faith and expectation, especially for a program facing their first front office reset in the last two decades.

Hopefully this is only the beginning of such honors for Iowa's basketball program and that, going forward, such things can become the norm in the Ben McCollum regime.

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