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Bennett Stirtz reacts after hitting a 3-pointer against UCLA.Bennett Stirtz reacts after hitting a 3-pointer against UCLA.
Men's Basketball

Stirtz Named to Wooden Award Top 25 Midseason Watch List

University of Iowa senior Bennett Stirtz has been named to the 2025-26 John R. Wooden Award Top 25 Midseason Watch List, it was announced Wednesday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

LOS ANGELES – University of Iowa senior Bennett Stirtz has been named to the 2025-26 John R. Wooden Award Top 25 Midseason Watch List, it was announced Wednesday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

It is the 50th anniversary season of college basketball’s most prestigious individual honor.

Selected by a midseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list comprises 25 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.

Stirtz has been in double figures in 13 games with a team-high seven 20-point contests this season. He has scored 20+ in three straight games against UMass Lowell, UCLA and Minnesota.

The Liberty, Missouri, native is averaging 18 points, five assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals in leading the Hawkeyes to a 12-3 start – the best for the program since the 2020-21 season.  He ranks in the top six in the Big Ten in points, assists and steals, while posting .500/.407/.819 shooting splits in 35.4 minutes per game.

Stirtz is the only Big Ten player to have 245+ points and 70+ assists this season and he’s one of five players nationally with 245+ points, 25+ steals, 70+ assists and 35+ rebounds. 

Stirtz is one of six Big Ten Conference players on the list, along with Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith, Indiana’s Tucker Devries, Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg and Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton.

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.

The Hawkeyes return to action Sunday, hosting No. 16 Illinois at 11 a.m. (CT) on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.  Tickets are available at hawkeyesports.com.