Bennett Stirtz is going to use his final year of eligibility to play college basketball at Iowa during the 2025/26 season. The former Drake Bulldogs star recently entered the transfer portal with the intention of following head coach Ben McCollum from Des Moines to Iowa City.
His off-day diet consists of a lot of donuts!
Stirtz, a former zero-star recruit, began his college basketball career on the Division-II level at Northwest Missouri State. He grew up in the small town of Liberty, Missouri and did not receive a single Division-I offer out of high school. All of the teams that passed (literally all of them) missed out on a stud.
Not only was Stirtz named as the MIAA Freshman of the Year in 2023, he averaged 15.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game with the Bearcats as a sophomore. D-I schools continued to sleep on the 6-foot-4, 180-pound point guard but his head coach, McCollum, offered him the opportunity to transfer up when he was named as the new head coach at Drake.
The rest is history. Stirtz dropped 19.2 points per game on 49.8% shooting with 4.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists and was named as the Missouri Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Year. The Bulldogs went 31-4 with an upset win over 6-seed Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Bennett Stirtz is off to Iowa!
McCollum, who was named as the Joe B Hall National Coach of the Year, got hired by Iowa after just one season at Drake. He is bringing Stirtz with him.
All of this goes to say that Bennett Stirtz will be a household name next season if he is not already!
In addition to his impressive on-court numbers, the 21-year-old also led the country with 39.2 minutes per game last season. He goes hard. According to Dartmouth College’s Athletic Department, someone of his size should eat at least 4,000 calories per day to maintain his body weight and energy levels.
Thus, it is not a surprise that Stirtz goes crazy on his off day! However, the dietitians at Iowa might suggest that he try some more complex carbs. His girlfriend, Taygen Brown, shared a behind-the-scenes look at his off-day diet earlier in the season. It consists of a lot of donuts and burgers. Like, a lot.
I love everything about this. Bennett Stirtz is just a normal dude who loves to hoop. He rarely comes out of the game and fuels his body on donuts and burgers. The Big Ten is not ready.