Iowa Hawkeyes Fans Will Be Fired Up Over This Gargantuan Take

Iowa Hawkeyes fans will love this huge take about their basketball team.

Iowa's new head men's basketball coach Ben McCollum waves at the assembled crowd while walking into his introductory press conference Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Ben McCollum has certainly been busy over the course of his first month as Iowa Hawkeyes basketball coach, picking up some very notable names in the transfer portal and attempting to reverse the program's fortunes after a couple of rough seasons.

Perhaps McCollum's most significant move thus far was pilfering his old Drake Bulldogs squad of guard Bennett Stirtz, who was the top scorer in the Missouri Valley as well as the conference's Player of the Year this past season.

Well, McCollum's decision to bag Stirtz is getting rave reviews, and CBS Sports has ranked Stirtz No. 2 on its list of the 100 most impactful transfers heading into the 2025-26 campaign.

"Pick-and-roll maestro and elite shot-maker who shot over 70% at the rim," CBS Sports wrote. "Led Drake's NCAA run and follows coach Ben McCollum to Iowa. One of the Big Ten's best lead guards in the making."

Stirtz averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.1 steals over 39.4 minutes per game this past season on 49.8/39.5/79.4 shooting splits.

The 6-foot-4 guard has been coached by McCollum throughout his entire collegiate career, which began at Northwest Missouri State in 2022. He spent two seasons there with McCollum before McCollum earned a job at Drake last year, and Stirtz made the jump along with him.

Iowa is looking to bounce back from a miserable campaign in which it went just 17-16, going 7-13 in Big Ten conference play. The Hawkeyes missed the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years, which resulted in the firing of Fran McCaffery after a decade-and-a-half at the helm.

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