Bennett Stirtz has finally gotten the help Iowa needed to give him all season

From Northwest Missouri State to Drake to Iowa, Ben McCollum’s success over the last four years has been centered around his star point guard, Bennett Stirtz. However, it took more than one player to win DII national championships; it took more than one player to win the Missouri Valley Conference last year, and it has taken more than one player for the Hawkeyes to reach their first Elite Eight since 1987. 

In Thursday night’s 77-71 win over Nebraska, Stirtz didn’t struggle as he did against Florida in Iowa’s second-round upset win, but he still needed a few key performances from Alvaro Folgueiras and Tate Sage off the bench to pull out the come-from-behind victory. Iowa’s 38 bench points on Thursday night were the most its had against any high-major opponent all year. 

Iowa’s bench has been at its best in the biggest moments

At times this year, it has been the Bennett Stirtz show in Iowa City, but the Hawkeyes haven’t necessarily gone as their senior point guard goes. Stirtz’s numbers aren't exactly identical in Iowa’s 24 wins compared to its 12 losses. Expectedly, he scores more and shoots better when Iowa wins, or more correctly, Iowa wins when he scores more and shoots better. 

Still, the much bigger discrepancy is the Hawkeyes’ bench scoring. In wins, McCollum’s bench averages 27.1 points per game. In losses, that average sinks to 18.7 points. Thursday night was the best performance by the bench all season, with the duo of Folgueiras and Sage combining for 35 of those 38 bench points on 12-17 shooting and 6-10 from three. 

Against Florida, while Folgueiras hit the game-winning shot that will live forever in Iowa history, Tavion Banks was the star. In 30 minutes, Banks led the way with 20 points on 7-10 from the field with six rebounds against a supersized Florida front court. Against Nebraska, Sage and Folgueiras were the star role players as Banks was held to two points in 15 minutes, and Cam Manyawu was held scoreless in 14 minutes. 

For as heliocentric as Iowa’s offense can seem with Stirtz as the primary on-ball initiator, making decisions late in the shot clock and bailing the Hawkeyes out of possessions with impressive shot-making, he’s 227th in the country in usage rate. His 26.8 percent usage rate is only the ninth-highest in the Big Ten this year (among players with 500 minutes per CBBanalytics.com). That leaves plenty of room for role players to make their mark, and in the NCAA Tournament, they have. 

In McCollum’s first season, Iowa is now one win away from the Final Four with third-seeded Illinois standing in their way on Saturday in Houston. And while their All-American honorable mention point guard might be the biggest reason, he’s far from the only one.