There were two reasons for Iowa Hawkeyes fans to be excited about Fran McCaffery’s replacement. First, Ben McCollum had a remarkable season at Drake as the four-time Division 2 national champion led the Bulldogs to 31 wins and a first-round NCAA Tournament upset of Missouri. And second, Bennett Stirtz.
The All-American honorable mention point guard led McCollum’s team with 19.2 points, 5.7 assists, and 2.1 steals a game as he was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year. Then, in the NCAA Tournament Stirtz proved that he was ready for Power Confernece competition, taking it to Missouri with a dazzling 20-point first-round performance and dropping 20 more in a second-round loss to Texas Tech.
Stirtz followed McCollum from D2 Northwest Missouri State to Drake, so optimistic Iowa fans predicted that the two would be a package deal, and on Tuesday, they were proven right.
BREAKING: Drake star Bennett Stirtz tells @TheFieldOf68 that he will be entering the transfer portal. …
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 25, 2025
And following Ben McCollum to Iowa.
HUGE news for the Hawkeyes.
All-American point guard Bennett Stirtz set to transfer Iowa
Stirtz will immediately become one of the best players in the Big Ten and likely the second-best point guard behind Purdue’s Braden Smith, assuming Smith returns to West Lafayette for his senior season after winning Big Ten Player of the Year this year. The Hawkeyes have missed the NCAA Tournament for the past two seasons, leading to McCaffery’s dismissal, but as long as McCollum has a respectable transfer portal haul, Stirtz will immediately vault the program into contention for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid, and maybe more.
An exceptional playmaker, Stirtz’s near-perfect decision-making allowed McCollum’s team to operate at the slowest pace in the country last season while maintaining high-level efficiency. The 6-foot-4 point guard always keeps the play alive, stressing defenses to defend for the full 30-second shot clock, and is a talented enough shot-maker to routinely bail his team out of stalled possessions. Exhibit A:
Bennett Stirtz.
— Ben Stevens (@BenScottStevens) March 21, 2025
ONE-LEGGED THREE.
You cannot be serious. pic.twitter.com/H70PawjbMB
McCollum still has to undergo an entire roster overhaul in Iowa City, especially with Owen Freeman, Josh Dix, and Brock Harding all entering the transfer portal after McCaffery’s dismissal. Yet, with the addition of Stirtz, his first offseason is shaping up to be an A+.
The first-time Power Conference head coach has time to develop young talent, but with an All-American-caliber point guard on his roster for the 2025-26 season, likely his final year of collegiate eligibility, the rest of this offseason should be about adding veterans around Stirtz to compete for a Big Ten title in Year 1.
He’s elite as a pick-and-roll ball-handler and thrived with knock-down shooters and intelligent cutters at Drake. That’s likely the blueprint that McCollum will use in the construction of Iowa’s roster. Dusty May and Mark Pope and preparing for the Sweet 16 in their first year as a Power Conference head coach, turning around Michigan and Kentucky respectively through the transfer portal. McCollum could do the same and has a foundation piece akin to Vladislav Goldin following May from FAU to Ann Arbor.