Drake senior Garrett Sturtz had no idea what to expect when he joined the Bulldog basketball team. The former Newton star was recruited as a walk on by former coach Niko Medved and stayed with his commitment after Darian DeVries was named the coach following the 2018 season.

Sturtz contributed right away. He played in 31 games as a freshman an averaged more than 18 minutes per game for a team that claimed a share of the Missouri Valley regular season title. DeVries says one of his top memories of that season was a late November game at Missouri-Kansas City.

Sturtz contributes in a number of areas but his biggest strength may be creating offense without the ball.

Sturtz says he wasn’t sure what to expect when workouts started the summer prior to his freshman season.

Sturtz found out right away there were ways to contribute without scoring.

Sturtz has been part of a run that has seen the Bulldogs average nearly 24 wins the last four seasons and win their first NCAA Tournament game in 50 years back in 2021.