Having Stirtz on the roster was the difference between Iowa and Indiana. Iowa was 10-10 in conference and Indiana was 9-11.
Stirtz was a bona fide NBA draft choice who just followed McCollum from Drake. There wasn't a choice to be had. He fell into Iowa's lap. Indiana was running Conner Enright out there.
If they didn't have Stirtz, that's not a tournament team and if they didn't have him in the tournament, we would have beaten them by 40. He was the only reason that game was remotely close.
If Stirtz fell in Indiana's lap, they would have been WORLDS better than IU. They had more talent than Iowa everywhere, but the PG position and there was a Grand Canyon gap between the two.
All I'm saying is let it play out. Indiana has a ton of money to play with. We're seeing the difference right now. Wabbington was choosing between Arizona(home state), Illinois(features bigs that have the green light from anywhere) and IU has nothing to latch on to but money. It sure looks like we know what won out.