Bet on Bennett: The Straw that Stirtz Iowa's Drink
There are tons of reasons that Rowan Kent is high on Iowa's Bennett Stirtz in the 2026 NBA Draft Class, but which star point guard could Stirtz evolve into on his new team?
With so much uncertainty in college basketball, it’s hard to know who or what you can bet on to deliver. Based on the exciting freshmen, shocking transfers, and returning star players, one could argue that college basketball has never been in stronger shape. By the other edge of the sword, however, the rampant transfer craze, unrestricted NIL promises, and increasingly integrated gambling could be viewed as the end of college basketball as we know it.
Now, I’m not talking about what to bet on in a daily app-based sense; if you’re looking for that content, you’d best look somewhere else. Instead, it’s harder to know what you can count on in college basketball these days outside of basketball itself. Who will play where? Which freshman will emerge? Can my team compete in this new era?
A player you can bet on to lead his team to new highs and to factor heavily into the 2026 draft conversation, however, is Bennett Stirtz. The mid-major magician had a sterling first season at the Division I level after following his coach, Ben McCollum, to Drake. The pair engineered an NCAA tournament appearance and a marquee year before both chose to head for a new Midwest pasture for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The Hawkeyes, like many other Big Ten teams, have a new roster and have a lot of uncertainty heading into the season. Bennett Stirtz is both a known commodity who can organize a new roster and is on track to have the same star impact he had at Drake for his new team. Plus, he may be the best point guard in the class and might have a stealthy star ceiling to explore.
So, why can you bet on Bennett Stirtz as a sure thing in the 2026 draft class?
Much More than a Passing Grade
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of Bennett Stirtz’s game and what makes him so unique, it’s worth remembering the unlikely path that got him here. After a successful, if not underrated, high school career in Missouri, Stirtz stayed in-state and played for Ben McCollum at Division II powerhouse Northwest Missouri State for two seasons before following him to Drake. The rest is history from there, as the Bulldogs had a monster season, winning their first regular-season conference championship since the 2007-2008 season and knocking out Missouri for a bit of poetic justice once they reached March Madness.
While the motley crew of Mitch Mascari, Tavion Banks, Daniel Abreu, Cam Manyawu, Isaiah Jackson, and Isaia Howard were all undoubtedly major parts of Drake’s successful year, the credit on the court rests on the shoulders of Bennett Stirtz. Stirtz was the primary initiator, creator, and shot maker for the Bulldogs, leading the team in points, assists, and steals, while also ranking second in three-point percentage on 4.6 attempts per game and third on the roster in rebounds per game.
With the ball in his hands, Bennett Stirtz is a nigh-impossible cover from a strategic perspective for a defense. There are no right answers that he gives you, given his proclivity to do anything required of a modern point guard. He’s a fearsome shot creator for himself in and outside of the arc, but it’s his ability to break down defenses and make his teammates better that is the best feature of his game.
Stirtz is a prolific passer who can hit every option in the book, which is buoyed by his downhill driving talent. If Stirtz weren’t a threat to score, he’d still be a top-level point guard, but the fact that he’s a polished scorer elevates his floor game into arguably the best in the draft class.
From an aesthetic perspective, Bennett Stirtz plays a measured and beautiful brand of basketball. He’s eager to set teammates up, chooses the right option, and keeps the ball moving without it sticking too long in his hands. Nowhere is this more apparent on his kick-out passes to waiting shooters on the wings, which he had a bevy of at Drake last season.
Stirtz is skilled at hitting his teammates in the shooting pocket while on the move, which collapses the defense further onto him. That’s to his benefit, as he’s just as adept at using his body and eyes to distract defenders before dropping off a slick dump feed to a waiting teammate right under the bucket.
If Stirtz beats his man off the dribble and has a bent defense situation, it’s worth just rolling the ball the other way and chalking up an easy two on the scoreboard. He puts the perfect pace on his lobs and cuts to teammates, freezing for a half second or putting just enough air under his alley-oops to open up holes that weren’t there before for his team.
Not just reading the game, but manipulating it to his will, is what takes Stirtz from being a great point guard at the college level to a potentially potent one in the pros. Vanilla pick-and-roll frequencies have dipped at the NBA level over the years, but it’s still such a valuable play that any point guard in The Association needs to run it to perfection.
Luckily, Bennet Stirtz can do just that. Running the play itself can come down to his patient approach to passing, where he uses his own gravity and timing to dime his teammate open, or it can refer to the fact that he’s a dangerous driver who earned an “Excellent” offensive rating, per Synergy, on pick-and-roll plays as a scorer.
Bennett Stirtz’s special success as a pick-and-roll aficionado was also a result of some great pull-up shooting numbers for him. Stirtz hit a nice 40.6% of his 69 pick-and-roll three pointers this season, most of which were off the bounce, and shot a robust 36.7% on 120 dribble three-point jumpers, per Synergy. As I’ve come to evaluate point guards more and more, a major determining factor of becoming a starter in the NBA has been a player’s pull-up shooting proficiency. Given that Stirtz is a threat to a defense when they go under screens, he demands more attention than a less threatening ball-handler, and the rest of the floor opens up in accordance with his dangerous nature on offense.
Bennett Stirtz is a complete package for a half-court offensive player. That modifier is a key feather in his cap, as he both has the requisite athleticism not to get run over in the NBA, but doesn’t just use his athleticism to create advantages for himself and others. With a reliable brain to read the floor with, Stirtz is clearly a starting-level offensive NBA point guard who still has a few wrinkles to his game on both ends of the floor to embrace a sneaky star ceiling.
Finishing Touches on Stirtz’s Offense
There have been other point guards I’ve scouted who have had similarly talented floor games in college who, due to their scoring limitations, get stifled in the NBA. It’s no longer enough to just set the table for a teammate; the defensive schematics in the NBA are too intricate to play virtually a man down when trying to execute a successful action against a set defense.
That’s what makes Bennett Stirtz’s finishing and shooting numbers so important. He’s a firmly average vertical athlete for the NBA, as evidenced by his 13 dunks last season, but won’t blow anyone away with his leaping. Stirtz is also a good, not great, horizontal athlete, with a solid first step to get by players in the halfcourt. Without standout physical tools, Stirtz runs the risk of being a minus as a finisher, but the numbers and film paint a much different story.
Per Synergy, Stirtz finished his lay-ups at an extremely healthy 68.3% clip on 145 attempts this past season at Drake. Those numbers are, frankly, absurd for a player not known for his athleticism and speak to his craft as a finisher. After watching his attempts at the rim this year, I had to revise my thoughts on him as an athlete, as he has clear advantages that he utilizes to make him as lethal a finisher as he is.
The main components that make Stirtz a great finisher are that he wins early and finishes high. Stirtz’s first step and shake off the dribble are both strong elements of his game, letting him glide by defenders into open space and get a head of steam going toward the basket. Once he gets there, Stirtz consistently finishes with a high release point that shows off his preternatural touch, which is a key part of his passing chops.
Whether watching him attack isolations, switches, or back cuts, Stirtz uses a blinding step to jet by his defender before lofting a soft lay-in over their outstretched hands. My only critique of him as a finisher is that he’s quite right-hand dominant, even when driving left, but that so far hasn’t been a major limiting factor on how good he can be at the rim.
To complement his great passing and rim numbers, Stirtz is also a good shooter with some small areas for growth. I already touched on his pull-up skills from deep, which are key for being a primarily on-the-ball guard, but just as important are Stirtz’s ability to hit his shots at a standstill and to create his own offense in the midrange.
While Bennett Stirtz has never taken more than 50 catch-and-shoot threes in his three years on Synergy, he’s steadily canned these shots at 46.0%, 41.0%, and 45.5% in three consecutive seasons. I’d love for the shooting volume to be a bit higher before projecting, but it’s hard to argue with the numbers, even though his form is slightly off kilter.
When combined with his improvement year-over-year as a pull-up shooter, there’s a strong case to be made that Bennett Stirtz has no glaring holes in his game as an offensive point guard. Given his ability to hit shots from deep, finish at the rim, and create for others, there’s not much else you can ask of a player setting up a modern offense.
Where Bennett Stirtz’s ceiling dips is in his shot creation in the midrange. We’ve come around enough on the “in-between game” as a collective to recognize that the best mid-range shooters in the game do bring positive value to an offense with this variety of looks, especially in a playoff context. While not a necessity for a role player, any potential star creator in the NBA needs a midrange game, lest they be schemed into a corner.
It’s premature to think of Bennett Stirtz as a potential future All-Star, given his age and lack of a developed mid-range game. This past season at Drake, Stirtz shot just 37.3% on 67 middies, per Synergy, which isn’t a threatening percentage. More concerning to me than his shooting numbers, which were just 8/17 from his two years at Northwest Missouri, are the granular issues with Stirtz’s shot creation.
All too often, Stirtz waited too deep into the shot clock before starting his move. There, a slight lack of shake to his dribble package showed up more than on other spots, as Stirtz can’t generate as much space as he needs to make his moves. That led to many off-balance shots, where Stirtz doesn’t get his feet set and his form suffers as a result.
Luckily, Bennett Stirtz has developed a counter: his floater. It isn’t the prettiest shot in his arsenal, but it’s nonetheless effective due to Stirtz’s high release point over incoming defenders. Stirtz took 64 runners this year, per Synergy, and canned 42.2% of them for a “Good” rating by the platform. That speaks to his growing midrange game, even if he would be better served by gaining more control over his midrange jumpers.
Although he has some obstacles to reaching his star ceiling, it’s worth appreciating what Bennett Stirtz is versus what he isn’t. He’s a clear floor general who is also a threat to score, has physical advantages that power his cerebral play, and often plays with a decisiveness that modern offenses need.
Doesn’t that sound like someone else who played at an Iowa college who we just saw on a dream run to the NBA Finals?
A Star Comparison to Bet On?
I’d like to think that, as a scout, I don’t have grand delusions about what kind of player a prospect can become. While I never handicap a player’s ultimate ceiling, I do my best to acknowledge that many more median outcomes are likelier for a player’s career. Thus, when I make a lofty comparison to a current great of the NBA for Bennett Stirtz, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
And… I just can’t help myself when I try to imagine the outcomes for Stirtz’s career. Sure, the likeliest place that Bennett Stirtz will end up is as a rotation guard that can push for a starting spot once his defense catches up to his offense and he puts on a bit more weight. I lean more bullish, where Stirtz should start for an NBA team and hold down that spot for a team that plays winning basketball on both ends.
If everything works out just right for Bennett Stirtz, a spooky comparison is Tyrese Haliburton. That’s lofty praise for a player who just emerged, before a heartwrenching injury, as one of the premier on-ball engines in the NBA, but not one I make lightly. Remember, Haliburton was neither a slam-dunk star prospect nor an immediate star in the NBA; he needed a trade and a notable improvement as a scorer to become the household name that he is now.
When running what I think is an “ethical” BartTorvik Query on staples of Stirtz’s game, I came across this comparison that has stuck in the back of my brain. Stirtz was part of a group of players who had at least a 10 BPM, 60% True Shooting Percentage, 30% Assist Percentage, and 3% Steals Percentage. Ty Lawson’s height takes him out as a comparison, alongside Stephen Curry’s shooting proclivity. Between Delon Wright, Thomas Walkup, and Tyrese Haliburton, I see much more Hali in Stirtz’s game than any of the others.
While it’s hard to think back objectively, the prevailing consensus on Tyrese Haliburton coming out of Iowa State was that he would be a valuable player, but not necessarily an offensive star. Haliburton always made the right play, hit shots with his unorthodox form, and showed off his signature flair for finding open teammates. Still, he also had a solid defensive reputation due to his length and anticipation on that end.
Defense is where I have more concerns for Bennett Stirtz, but none of them are enough to write off this potential star ceiling. Stirtz had great hands in the passing lane, in the hip pocket of unwitting offensive players, and when defending players tried to drive against him. He’s able to be pushed off his spot, but Stirtz’s ball skills do win him a handful of defensive battles that he has no right to be in.
It’s more about the ups and downs of Bennett Stirtz’s on-and-off ball defense that give me some slight pause. With his frame, height, and wingspan, Stirtz will only ever be slightly above average size-wise. That means he needs to work his butt off on defense to compensate for his lack of standout athleticism, which is where some of the doubts creep in.
For every possession that Stirtz stayed attached to his man on a drive or contested a three with a proper closeout, there was another where he got tied up on an off-ball action or set his feet wrong, resulting in a blow-by. Screens are the biggest issue for Stirtz defensively right now, as he frequently gets hung up on them and leaves his defense vulnerable. I will cut him some slack, as he’s everything to his team offensively, but that won’t be true at the next level.
The defense conversation would be less critical if Bennett Stirtz were to take the same meteoric leap that Tyrese Haliburton has in the NBA, but no guarantee that it will happen. I see a clear connection between two prospects with similar point guard profiles, physical profiles, and statistical profiles.
Efficient shooting at the rim and from beyond the arc were what really opened up Haliburton’s game as a star this season. Still, it was also his 48.4% on runners and 47.7% on midrange jumpers, per Synergy, that cemented him as an actual offensive engine in the NBA. It’ll take a notable leap for Bennett Stirtz to get there, but as long as he maintains his rim pressure and pull-up frequency, the chances should be there.
Whether they’ll be there as a starter right away is another question. The NBA season has barely started, teams have roster decisions to make this and next summer, and there’s so much that can happen in a draft cycle. Teams that appear to have set point guards could open up their floor general slot and vice versa, which could lead to Stirtz starting his career coming off the bench.
The more that I’ve looked at this draft class, though, the less even an early bench role would bother me for Bennett Stirtz. Outside of the star trio at the top, there aren’t any surefire talents in the lottery. Instead, there are a variety of high-upside talents who have a lot to prove and are worth betting on. Of all those players, especially the returners, I feel best betting on Bennett Stirtz to reach a positive outcome for his team, with the ultimate ceiling of playing like one of the most successful point guards in recent NBA history.
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