Stirtz Named to Wooden Award Late Midseason Top 20 Watch List

LOS ANGELES – University of Iowa senior Bennett Stirtz has been named to the 2025-26 John R. Wooden Award Top 25 Late Midseason Top 20 Watch List, the announcement was made Tuesday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Selected by a midseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list comprises 20 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, who has also been named to the Bob Cousy Midseason Top 10 and as a Sporting News third-team Midseason All-American, is averaging 19.9, 4.8 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals this season in leading Iowa to an 18-5 record – the team’s best record through 23 games since the 2018-19 season. 

The Liberty, Missouri, native has scored 20+ points in six straight games (and in 13 games this season). The six straight 20+ point contests are the most by a Hawkeye since Keegan Murray in 2021-22 and the most by an Iowa guard since downtown Freddy Brown in 1970-71.

Stirtz has netted career highs in two of the team’s last three games. He scored 32 points in the road win at Oregon on Feb. 1 before besting his performance with a career-best 36 points in Iowa’s Feb. 8 win over Northwestern. He was 12-of-20 from the floor, 4-of-6 from 3-point land and 8-of-8 from the free throw line.

His 36 points were the most by a Hawkeye since Luka Garza in 2021 and they are tied the fourth-most points by a player in Carver-Hawkeye Arena history.  He has scored 90 points during the three-game stretch, the most by an Iowa player since Murray’s 91 points in Feb. 2022.

Stirtz, who ranks in the top-six in the Big Ten in scoring, assists and steals, is the only player in the nation with 450+ points, 110+ assists, 55+ 3s, 50+ rebounds and 35+ steals. He is looking to become the first Hawkeye in 26 years to lead the team in points, assists and steals.

Stirtz is one of five Big Ten Conference players on the list, along Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears, Jr., Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg, Purdue’s Braden Smith and Illinois’ Keaton Wagler.

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 Wednesday, traveling to College Park to face Maryland at the XFINITY Center.  The game will begin at 5 p.m. (CT) and be televised on FS1.