The Iowa Men's Basketball program has done a complete 180 after the final few years of the Fran McCaffery era.
New head coach Ben McCollum and his staff have diligently worked to establish a culture for sustained success, and that began with the first crop of players they brought with them.
Luckily, most of the current roster has been coached by McCollum before and knows what he expects, and the rest have all bought in.
Establishing a culture also hinges on your best players buying in, and no one has been a bigger champion for McCollum and his culture than senior star Bennet Stirtz.
Stirtz has done everything and more for the Hawkeyes this season on the court, but he wants his legacy to center around something off the court
Stirtz hopes his impact was to establish a culture and foundation
Stirtz has already achieved numerous accolades this season, including joining the 2,000-point club and scoring a career-high 32 points against Oregon.
Despite all his accolades over his stellar four-year collegiate career, Stirtz wants his impact to be felt in a different way.
Ahead of Senior Night, Bennett Stirtz on the impact he hopes he left on the Iowa program: “A foundation. And just know that I gave it my all. I know (McCollum) is going to get it rolling, even better than it was this year. I just want to give it my all, establish a culture. I… pic.twitter.com/f6tTUCoZpK
— Tyler Tachman (@Tyler_T15) March 3, 2026
Stirtz wants his impact to center on establishing a culture and foundation for the program, and he wants fans to know he "gave it his all."
He also said that he knows that McCollum is going to get it rolling in the future, "even better than this year," and he believes he and the rest of the guys have established a solid base this year.
Stirtz is a humble star who has a bright future in the NBA, and we hate to think where the program would be without what he has done on and off the court this season.