By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – When it comes to successfully recruiting four- and five-star prospects in men’s basketball, Iowa fans have reason to be less than optimistic because it just hasn’t happened much.

Even before five stars were added to the grading system, Iowa has relied mostly on unheralded recruits to play point guard.

Ronnie Lester is widely regarded as the best point guard in program history, but as a recruit coming out of Chicago in the mid-1970s, he was mostly overlooked, and obviously under-valued.

Iowa recruited Lester harder than any other school as former Iowa head coach Lute Olson zeroed in on Lester early in the process and then made a strong impression during Lester’s official visit.

Lester only took one other official visit to Arizona, but he already had made up his mind that he wanted to be a Hawkeye and the visit to Tucson convinced him even more.

Bennett Stirtz is Iowa’s most recent star point guard, having used up his eligibility this past season. But he didn’t have any scholarship offers from major programs coming out of high school in Liberty, Missouri.

Stirtz played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Division II Northwest Missouri State, and his junior season at mid-major Drake before transferring to Iowa last summer.

Ben McCollum was his head coach at all three schools.

Together, they helped to lead Iowa to the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time since 1987 this past season in McCollum’s first season as head coach.

The 6-foot-4 Stirtz has since moved on the NBA as a first-round pick and now plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Stirtz will forever be grateful to McCollum for first believing in him when so few others did, and for helping to develop Stirtz into an NBA first-round pick.

As part of that gratitude, Stirtz is now helping McCollum recruit and high on their target list is 2027 Florida five-star point guard Cayden Daughtry, whose stock has continued to soar this summer.

While Stirtz was in Las Vegas playing the NBA Summer League, he took time from his schedule to watch Daughtry compete at the Nike EYBL circuit games, which was also held in Las Vegas.

McCollum and his staff have been aggressively recruiting Daughtry for months, and their hard work seems to be paying dividends as Iowa is now considered one of the leaders, if not the current leader, to sign Daughtry.

Of course, a lot can change between now and signing day.

But just for Iowa to be mentioned as the leader for a player as highly coveted as the 6-2 Daughtry is a worthy accomplishment and a sign of progress.

Iowa had a brief stretch in three seasons under head coach George Raveling in the 1980s where it signed a number of highly acclaimed recruits, including point guard B.J. Armstrong.

However, that success probably said more about Raveling as a gifted recruiter than anything else.

Because for the most part, Iowa hasn’t been in contention for star recruits.

But with Stirtz’s improbable rise from unheralded recruit to an NBA first-round pick, McCollum is now earning respect for his ability to develop point guards at the highest level.

McCollum coached a number of standout point guards in his 14 seasons at Northwest Missouri State where he won four national titles. But that isn’t the same as doing it at the power 4 level.

The fact that Stirtz had both team and individual success in his only season as a Hawkeye is crucial as McCollum moves forward in recruiting.

If McCollum can turn a no-star point guard recruit into an NBA first-round pick; imagine what he could do with a five-star recruit such as Daughtry.

That is presumably part of Iowa’s sales pitch to Daughtry, and it’s a pretty strong sales pitch, even in this age of NIL.

And speaking of NIL, some of the naysayers and skeptics already have written off Iowa because they assume that Daughtry will ultimately cost to much money to seal the deal.

And while that is a fair and reasonable concern since money often has the biggest influence,  it’s also reasonable to assume that McCollum wouldn’t be recruiting Daughtry this hard without thinking he had a chance to land Daughtry.

Iowa men’s basketball certainly doesn’t have the deepest NIL pockets, though it is in a much better position under McCollum than it was under former head coach Fran McCaffery, who lost multiple recruits due mostly to NIL shortcomings.

Iowa is recruiting at least three high school point guards that are ranked among the top 100 nationally in the 2027 class.

In addition to Daughtry, four-star point guards Jaxson Davis and Tyrone “TJ” Jamison also list Iowa as a school of interest. Davis is from Illinois, while Jamison calls Louisiana home.

Signing anyone of the three would be considered a major accomplishment for McCollum.

It’s always easier to pick the field in these kinds of cases because the field provides multiple options from which to choose.

But for Iowa to be in the running for three heralded point guard in the same class shows that McCollum has made an impression.

Iowa is at least in the discussion, and that’s a step in the right direction.

How big of a step remains to be seen.