March Madness 2025: Drake star Bennett Stirtz to follow Ben McCollum to Iowa
Stirtz told the Field of 68 on Tuesday that he'd be entering the transfer portal and head to Iowa. The Hawkeyes hired Drake coach Ben McCollum on Monday after Drake was eliminated from the second round of the NCAA tournament by Texas Tech.
The No. 11 Bulldogs pulled one of the bigger upsets of the first round with their 67-57 win over No. 6 Missouri. Stirtz had 21 points against the Tigers as he shot 73% from the field. He also scored 21 against Texas Tech, but shot less than 48% from the field in that 77-64 loss.
Stirtz was the Missouri Valley Conference's Larry Bird Player of the Year in his only season at Drake. He averaged 19.2 points per game and shot nearly 50% from the field as the Bulldogs went 31-4 overall.
Drake hired McCollum after he spent 15 seasons as the head coach of perennial Division II powerhouse Northwest Missouri State. Stirtz, a high school star from suburban Kansas City, didn't have many scholarship offers out of high school.
"Probably that he wants me to make me a better man off the court," Stirtz said of McCollum in a news conference on Friday. "I think that's what really made me decide I want to follow him to Northwest. I didn't have any other options. I didn't have many D1 offers or D2 offers. He really trusted in me, made me a better player and man."
McCollum had high praise for Stirtz in his introductory news conference on Tuesday.
Ben McCollum on Bennett Stirtz, who plans to come to Iowa but will test the NBA waters: "If he's not the best point guard in the country, he's top 2 or 3."
— Chad Leistikow🆑 (@ChadLeistikow) March 25, 2025
After starring for Northwest, Stirtz was one of multiple players to go with McCollum to Drake after Darian DeVries' departure to West Virginia. Drake added a dozen new players to its roster ahead of the 2024-25 season and was one of the best defensive teams in college basketball.
Stirtz clearly showed that he was capable of stepping up to Division I after averaging 15 points a game over the 2023-24 season. Now he'll have a chance to show he can play at a high level in a power conference at Iowa and it would be a surprise if he's the only Drake player to follow McCollum to Iowa City.
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