Drake basketball’s Bennett Stirtz will enter the transfer portal and join Ben McCollum at Iowa, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the Register on Tuesday.
The 6-foot-4 guard finished his first season with the Bulldogs on Saturday after transferring from Northwest Missouri State ahead of the season.
In his first season of Division I basketball, Stirtz emerged as one of the top point guards in the country. He led the country in minutes per game (39.2), ranked 31st in assists per game (5.6), 37th in points per game (19.2) and 29th in steals per game (2.12). He is the only player in the NCAA this season to lead his conference in all three categories.
Stirtz earned the Missouri Valley Conference’s Larry Bird Award – given to the player of the year – and the MVC Newcomer of the Year honors. He is the first player in Drake history to collect 600 points and 200 assists in the same season.
One year after undergoing a complete roster rebuild – after almost all of Drake’s roster entered the portal following the departure of head coach Darian DeVries – the Bulldogs’ athletic department finds itself in a similar situation again.
More: Despite losing in March Madness second round, Drake basketball earned its Cinderella story
Iowa announced it hired former Drake coach McCollum as its new head coach on Monday.
McCollum compiled a 31-4 overall record in one season at Drake, his first year leading a Division I program. He coached the Bulldogs to the regular season and tournament titles in the Missouri Valley Conference and pushed Drake to its first first-round win in the NCAA Tournament since 1971.
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Drake basketball guard Bennett Stirtz set to transfer to Iowa
