Bennett Stirtz could be 1st-round NBA Draft pick. He didn’t think it would happen
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Stirtz is regarded as a potential NBA first‑round pick, not yet selected.
- Scouts cite Stirtz’s leadership, court vision, scoring and durability as key strengths.
- Stirtz credits mentorship, faith and staged career moves for his rapid development.
Every single step of Bennett Stirtz’s basketball journey has been intentional and necessary in order for him to be regarded as a potential first-round NBA Draft pick.
Among today’s media-trained coaches and athletes, platitudes are universal: “stackin’ days”, “putting in the work” and “trusting the process” are common phrases in their vernacular.
They sound like empty cliches, but such sayings have been crucial to Stirtz’s development. Scouts understand that each phase of his career was important, which seems almost counterintuitive in an era when college players use the transfer portal to up their NIL earnings.
But Stirtz wouldn’t have been Iowa’s breakout star during an Elite Eight run without leading Drake to the second round of the NCAA Tournament the year before. He needed to adjust to college life and learn how to be away from home at Division II Northwest Missouri State, a little over an hour from his hometown of Liberty.
He followed his only college head coach, Ben McCollum, as he rose up the ranks in his own career — first at Northwest Missouri, then at Drake and finally with the Hawkeyes. McCollum’s mentorship was pivotal for Stirtz on and off the court, but his most important core traits were ingrained and developed since childhood.
Stirtz’s leadership and basketball intelligence are said to be among his best qualities. A 6-foot-3 point guard, he understands when teammates are open, when to pass to them and what kind of pass they need. Elite vision on the court helps him anticipate the tightest of lanes.
He prefers to win games with team basketball; at the NBA Combine, he declined to participate in 5-on-5 scrimmages. Stirtz’s father, Roger, a Missouri Hall of Fame basketball coach at Liberty High, said his son’s intelligence in any competitive sport sets him apart from peers.
“He played some flag football growing up. He played some two years of baseball and stuff,” the elder Stirtz said. “But he was able to comprehend the moment, whatever that moment, even when he was in first or second grade.
“He was able to comprehend the moment, and then know what to do in that situation, probably more so than any kid I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of them.”
Stirtz can score from all levels. He’s a solid athlete and defender and a consistent, durable worker, rarely leaving the floor throughout his college career.
He’s embraced each phase of his life as a stepping stone to the next stage of his development as a player and person. Fueled by his faith, Stirtz believes all that he has experienced has led him to where he is today.
When the NBA Draft begins on Tuesday (it’s June 23-24), the Stirtz family and McCollum will be inside Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, waiting to don caps of the team that selects him.
Stirtz and Illiinois’ Keaton Wagler — a Shawnee Mission Northwest alum — could be the first pair of KC natives picked in the first round since 2022, when Kansas Jayhawks teammates Ochai Agbaji (Oak Park High) and Christian Braun (Blue Valley Northwest) were selected.
“I think I’ve just had that mindset and know that God’s got a plan for me every step of the way,” Stirts told The Star. “So there’s no need to worry about that.
“Where I’m at, and where I’m supposed to be, and the same way I’m gonna move again for the third time in three years, I think ...”
He caught himself: “Fourth time in four years. But yeah, it’s crazy.”
The Stirtz family foundation
Stirtz is the third youngest of four brothers: The group also includes Mason (27), Cayden (25) and Cooper (19).
The family moved from central Kansas to Liberty in the early 1990s when Roger began coaching and teaching at Liberty. Bennett’s mother, Renee, is also a teacher. Roger was a head coach for more than 20 years, stepping down after Bennett’s senior season in 2022.
Bennett’s competitive streak began with brotherly games of football and basketball, outside in the driveway and indoors on a mini-hoop.
“We kept SKLZ in business with the amount of mini-basketball goals that we broke,” Caden Stirtz said.
Mason always teamed with the youngest, Cooper, pitting them against the two middle brothers. That made all the games close and fair, Cooper said, as the boys grew at different rates.
The active brothers always needed something to do, their mother said.
“Just keep them fed and active, and they were happy,” Renee Stirtz said.
Their parents were athletes. Renee competed in track and field distance events at Kansas State in the late 1980s and early 1990s and still runs regularly. Roger, 6-foot-4, played basketball before his coaching days and still cycles.
When the boys were younger, family vacations included camping, hiking and biking, or climbing mountains in Colorado and other parts of the country. Perhaps that helped Stirtz forge his seemingly limitless stamina on the basketball court.
“That was just our mom and dad getting out in the mountains,” Caden said.
Bennett was a dynamic athlete growing up, but his recruiting process was quiet. And that was much to his liking.
Local Division II schools William Jewell in Liberty and Northwest Missouri State were his only offers. But it wasn’t for lack of attention; Stirtz chose to focus on those two programs when other D2 schools called.
Powerhouse Northwest was good enough to beat many Division I teams during McCollum’s tenure. The coach won four national titles in his 15 years in Maryville.
Stirtz wasn’t an automatic contributor when he arrived, however. His adjustment to living away from family for the first time was not easy. Even though he was less than 100 miles from home, he struggled in his first two weeks on campus that August.
“I was really homesick,” Stirtz recalled. “I think I came back like every weekend my freshman year. So I think it was good to be somewhat close to home, and that was big for me. And then ... you get more comfortable just with college life and everything like that.”
As it happened, the Stirtz family had friends nearby at all three of the colleges he attended. At each stop, he found a church and other ways to become part of the community. And things became easier for him after his freshman year.
“He got really good at jumping and investing in the community and the people, since he moved so much,” Renee said.
Realizing his potential
Bennett’s bond with McCollum is built on discipline, loyalty and hard work. It was thrust into the national spotlight when Iowa reached the Elite Eight for the first time since 1987 this spring.
The bulk of the Hawkeyes’ roster was from Missouri. And Stirtz became a prime example of McCollum’s loyalty to players who had first chosen McCollum’s system in Maryville.
Stirtz admitted he didn’t have the elite work ethic he has now until around his sophomore year. He didn’t harbor NBA aspirations at that time, either; he was simply hoping for some playing time in college.
“I didn’t think I was good enough. My confidence level wasn’t high,” he said.
In high school, he had used his status as the coach’s son to get into the gym every day at 6 a.m. That would help mold his efficient shooting. He has been among the best shooters on every team for which he has played.
Stirtz’s record-breaking accolades at each stop can be unfurled in a long scroll: 2022-23 MIAA Freshman of the Year; multiple Missouri Valley Conference player of the year awards at Drake; first Iowa player in 26 years to lead the team in scoring, assists and steals.
And these only scratch the surface of his accomplishments.
Stirtz’s quick rise led to newfound fame. Suddenly, kids in Iowa City were wanting to take pictures with him. He’s still getting adjusted to that sort of attention. He can never leave his roots behind, and dedication to home shows up often in his life.
Against Michigan on March 5, he scored 23 points in a three-point loss. He never left the floor during the game, playing every minute. Afterward, he, Cooper and their father changed the thermostat in Stirtz’s oft-repaired 2013 Chrysler 300.
He figured they didn’t need a mechanic and could do it themselves.
Dad watched YouTube videos and brought tools and Bennett gathered all the parts they needed. The trio got the job done in 25 minutes in his parking garage.
But the same car — it wouldn’t start after sitting for two days — failed him again, right after Iowa’s exit from the tournament. Stirtz has since traded it in for a new truck, a Toyota Tundra, but he sounded a little sheepish about that.
“Got a good deal on it,” he said. “It’s a little too nice for me, but we’re gonna run it into the dirt.”
The next step
The rumor mill is swirling now. Which NBA teams will be most interested in Stirtz’s services this coming week?
He has met with at least seven teams so far, among them the Chicago Bulls (who hold the fourth and 15th overall picks), the Memphis Grizzlies (third, 16th), Oklahoma City Thunder (12th, 17th) and Golden State Warriors (11th).
Stirtz has been told his range is middle of the first round, somewhere in picks 9-20. Some mock drafts and predictions have him being selected near the end of Round 1.
Current NBA players Kon Knueppel of Charlotte and Austin Reeves from the Lakers have been advising him. And Stirtz raised some eyebrows at the NBA Combine with efficient shooting during pre-draft drills.
Teams love Stirtz’s mental fortitude, leadership and of course his ability to score. They may want him to become more vocal and strengthen his body so he can stay on the floor defensively in the grind of the NBA.
“I’m a white guy. People are going to try and go at me,” he said with a smile. “That’s what I want to prove: I can guard one-on-one ... I want to be consistent.”
When the Stirtz family arrives at the Barclays Center in New York on draft night, Bennett will be wearing a custom blazer with four patches stitched onto the inside. Each is dedicated to a different stage of his young career.
Liberty High School.
Northwest Missouri State.
Drake.
Iowa.
“He couldn’t have gone from here to Iowa. He needed those steps,” Roger Stirtz said. “But what’s cool about those steps is the people that he’s invested in, and that those people have invested in him at those three different stops.”
Along the way, Stirtz never lost focus on what matters to him the most: his community. That’s why he never left McCollum’s squads when he might have improved his own stock with a different transfer and massive NIL deal.
The simple things in life are what Stirtz desires: family, friends, faith and basketball. It is unlikely that the intense stage of the NBA will change this.
As for his family, they profess no preference for where the third-youngest Stirtz son begins his pro hoops career. They’re still as pleasantly surprised by his trajectory as he seems to be.
“As a person, if you are always wanting to learn from the people around you, how much better are you going to be when you don’t think you’ve got it all figured out?” Renee Stirtz said. “That sort of ‘student’ mentality, being a student of the people and situations around you, makes a big difference with him.”
