Stirtz Named to Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Senior guard Bennett Stirtz has been named to the 2025-26 John R. Wooden Award Men’s Preseason Top 50 Watch List, it was announced Tuesday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.  It is the 50th anniversary of college basketball’s most prestigious honor.

The Wooden Award Watch List is the fourth preseason Player of the Year preseason nod for Stirtz as he was also named to the NABC Watch List, Naismith Trophy Watch List and Oscar Robertson Trophy Watch List. 

The Liberty, Missouri, native has also been named a preseason All-American by CBS Sports (second team), Field of 68 (second team), Jon Rothstein (second team), Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook (fourth team) and Jay Bilas (honorable mention).  He is also on the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Watch List.

In three games this season, Stirtz is leading the team with a 21.3 scoring average to go along with 5.3 assists and 2.7 steals in 38.5 minutes per game – second-most nationally.  He is shooting 58.8 percent from the floor, 46.2 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the foul stripe. 

Stirtz is the only Hawkeye to score in double figures in every game and he had back-to-back 20+ point game in wins over Western Illinois and Xavier.

Last season, Stirtz was an All-American by three outlets at Drake.  He was also tabbed as the Missouri Valley Conference Larry Bird Player of the Year and Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year.  He led the MVC in scoring (19.2), steals (2.21) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.86), while ranking second in assists (5.7). 

Selected by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the Wooden Award Watch List comprises 50 student-athletes who are frontrunners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball – the Wooden Award All-American Team and the Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player.

The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2026 John R. Wooden Award Men’s Player of the Year. Players not selected for the list remain eligible for inclusion on the Wooden Award midseason, late-season list and the National Ballot.

The National Ballot will feature 15 top players who have demonstrated to their universities that they meet or exceed the Wooden Award® qualifications.  Winners and All-Americans will be honored at the Los Angeles Athletic Club on April 10, 2026.

Stirtz is one of 12 players from the Big Ten Conference on the preseason list.

Iowa (3-0) returns to action later this evening, hosting Southeast Missouri State at 7:30 p.m. (CT) on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.  Tickets are available at the Iowa Athletics Ticket Office or at hawkeyesports.com.