Iowa Guard Receives Lofty Preseason Accolade

Originally posted on Iowa Hawkeyes on SI | By Lane Mills | Last updated Oct 30, 2025 3:34 PM ET

The Iowa Hawkeyes are on the precipice of their first season under a new head coach in a long, storied 15 years. In the settled dust of the now bygone Fran McCaffery era, new head-man Ben McCollum is working to rebuild a program that had long lost their way.

Forcing a Reset

After a 17-16 (7-13 in conference play) finish last year, the weight had clearly tipped fully in the wrong direction. Now, in just a few days, the new (and hopefully improved) Hawkeyes will top off against the Robert Morris Colonials at home, setting the program on a freshly paved path towards renewed excellence.

At the forefront of McCollum's push is a player that came along with him in the coach's move from the Drake Bulldogs in transfer guard and senior Bennett Stirtz. The 2024-25 Bulldogs team, led by Stirtz, not only won the Missouri Valley Conference Championship, but also upset the sixth-seeded Missorui Tigers by double-digits in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

March Madness can encourage a lot of unlikely upsets, but McCollum, Stirtz and the Bulldogs handled the opposing Tigers with ease the entire way through. Rather than a stroke of luck, the win served more as a sign of what could come if these assets were moved into a land of richer basketball opportunities.

Now in Iowa City, those same assets are set up to make a serious impact on the national stage, and media all across the country is taking notice, especially of the aforementioned Stirtz.

That Guy @bennett_stirtz x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/tN9wqCWjie
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) October 30, 2025

Player of the Year Potential

The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) officially voted Stirtz onto their preseason player of the year watchlist, granting him company amongst many of the nation's other expected stars as one that could potentially stand out amongst them all.

Having nearly averaged a 20/5/5 split in his junior year at Drake, Stirtz's anticipated impact in Iowa City is far from basically perceived. Not only do his numbers speak for themselves, but the guard's prior experience under HC McCollum speaks to a union between the two that will likely yield ample opportunity, even now in his refreshed black and gold threads.

Even if Stirtz's collection of preseason predictions don't pay off, he'll more than likely serve his scoring-dominant role for the Hawkeyes well in a conference that is often seen as defensively focused. He and McCollum are about to usher in a new style of Hawkeyes basketball and, if it's done well, the B1G may not know what hit it.

This article first appeared on Iowa Hawkeyes on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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