Kriener Wished For A Better Finale
Ryan Kriener is back at his home in Spirit Lake.
His only basketball?
"Driveway hoops," Kriener said.
Kriener was hoping his college basketball career would have had a better ending. The Iowa forward was planning on an NCAA tournament trip with his teammates, but that ended when the tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
"If they put out a bracket tomorrow, I’d drive to Iowa City and get ready to play, I’ll tell you that much," Kriener said in a phone interview earlier this week.
Instead of getting a postseason, Kriener is ready to begin a new step in his college basketball career. He's been interviewing with agents, the beginning of the process to playing in a foreign league next season.
Kriener and the Hawkeyes were in Indianapolis on March 12, getting ready to head to Bankers Life Fieldhouse for a second-round game against Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament, when they found out the tournament was canceled.
By the end of the day, the NCAA tournament was canceled as well.
"It was weird," Kriener said. "We had a meeting with (Iowa athletics director Gary Barta) that Wednesday, when they announced (there would be) no fans (at the tournament games. He was telling us we really don’t know what’s going on, but plan on playing."
"We were expecting to play."
Those thoughts changed that night, when the Hawkeyes saw the video of Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg falling ill on the bench during a first-round game. Hoiberg was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with the flu.
"We thought, ‘Oh, if he has it, there’s no way we’re playing,'" Kriener said. "But we woke up the next day, thinking we had a basketball game to play.
"It just wasn’t there."
Kriener said the Hawkeyes, who went 20-11 this season, felt like the Big Ten tournament was a new beginning for them coming off a loss at Illinois to end the regular season.
"I definitely felt that," he said. "Even with the way the Illinois game ended up, I feel like everybody was extra motivated to go play and have a run at the title."
Kriener, who played in every game for the Hawkeyes this season, averaged 7.7 points, the leading scorer off the bench. It was his best season statistically.
"It was a lot of fun being able to contribute," Kriener said. "And just win — I’ve always been the guy who has wanted to just win. It’s fun to be able to contribute and be able to do that. It was disappointing that we couldn’t play, and have some postseason fun."
Kriener said he hasn't seen much of his teammates since the Hawkeyes got back to Iowa City.
"(Carver-Hawkeye Arena) is locked down, everything is locked down," he said. "I saw (guard) Jordan (Bohannon) when we were getting stuff out of our apartment, but everyone else I've talked to on the phone or texted with them."
It wasn't the end Kriener wanted.
"I think the thing I’m going to miss the most is just the guys on the team," he said. "(Coach Fran McCaffery) does a great job of recruiting guys with character, guys who fit in the locker room. That’s what I’m going to miss"
He laughed.
"I’m going to miss waking up and bothering J-Bo every day. I’ve been doing that the past four years," Kriener said. "I definitely made some life-long friendships, and that’s what I’m going to miss a lot."
Kriener said he's thought about the day everything was shut down.
"It was really disappointing," he said. "Emotional. Denial. It wasn’t really real. It still doesn’t feel real."
