Sports

Iowa Basketball Star Bennett Stirtz Embarrassed UCLA With ‘Classless’ Three-Pointer In Statement Victory

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Bennett Stirtz Iowa Classless Three-Pointer Disrespectful Basketball
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Iowa point guard Bennett Stirtz does not care about the unwritten rules of college basketball. If you don’t want him to score, stop him.

The former Division II star-turned-Big Ten star dropped a deep triple on UCLA as time expired.

Bruins fans were not pleased with how he closed out the dominant college basketball victory at home. The Hawkeyes simply do not care.

Iowa made a statement.

If you don’t know by now, Stirtz did not receive a single D-I offer out of Liberty High School in Missouri even though he was a first-team All-State player as a senior. That led him to Northwest Missouri State.

He was named as the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Freshman of the Year in his first season with the Bearcats. He averaged 15.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game as a sophomore.

And then Drake hired Ben McCollum.

Stirtz followed his head coach to Des Moines and immediately put the world on notice. The 6-foot-4, 190-pound point guard was named as the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, and the Bulldogs won 31 of 35 games en route to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Iowa decided to poach McCollum from Drake during the offseason. Stirtz hopped back in the transfer portal to follow him to Iowa City. Would he be able to replicate his success in the Big Ten?

Yep.

Bennett Stirtz is currently averaging 17.8 points on 51.6% shooting, 5.2 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game. The 25th-ranked Hawkeyes won their 12th game of the season against the Bruins on Saturday. Their only losses are to No. 7 Michigan State and to No. 4 Iowa State by four points.

Stirtz tallied 27 points on 8-10 shooting in the statement victory over UCLA.

He is legit. Iowa is legit. It’s not just a fluke.

Bennett Stirtz shows no mercy.

The Hawkeyes led the Bruins by 10 points with less than 20 seconds remaining in the second half. The game was over.

Both teams unofficially agreed to dribble out the clock. UCLA called off the defense. Iowa did not run another play on offense.

However, the game clock and the shot clock did not match.

Bennett Stirtz decided to shoot instead of taking a shot clock violation and a turnover. He nailed a deep triple to put an exclamation point on the win.

McCollum told him to shoot!

Carver-Hawkeye Arena went bonkers.

Bruins fans did not appreciate Stirtz’s shot. They — and others — found it to be disrespectful.

Hawkeyes fans — and anyone else with common sense — do not care. Nor does Stirtz. If you don’t want your opponent to score, you shouldn’t allow your opponent to score. Defend his shot.