The Monday Tipoff: Kriener Will Reflect Later

Iowa senior doesn't want season to end.

This is probably Ryan Kriener’s best season on the Iowa men’s basketball team.

He’s not ready to declare it his favorite.

“Yeah, we’ll see how it ends up,” the senior forward quipped last week. “Maybe last year was my favorite (when the Hawkeyes made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament). Maybe this year. We’ll see how it all finishes.”

Tuesday will be Kriener’s last game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, when the Hawkeyes play host to Purdue on Senior Night.

Kriener doesn’t want to think about the finish — not when the season could end, certainly not about his last home game.

“I don’t want to be overly emotional for game day,” he said.

He can’t guarantee the same for his parents, Rich and Nancy.

“They’re the boss,” Kriener said, joking again. “They do whatever they want.”

There is a what-might-have-been to Kriener’s career. He’s averaging 7.9 points and 4.2 rebounds, the best numbers of his four seasons. He’s had eight double-digit scoring games, one more than he had all last season.

The season that coach Fran McCaffery felt got away from Kriener was his sophomore year, when he missed six games because of two concussions.

“He definitely has had a tremendous impact in the last two years,” McCaffery said. “We always go back to that sophomore year where I think he was really on the verge, and then he had the two concussions, which obviously would set anybody back. When we played Penn State here that year, he was on his way to having one of the best games of the year (Kriener had five points and seven rebounds in seven minutes, and that's when he got his first injury. And then he had the other one at Rutgers, and it took a little while, as you can imagine. Any time you have two ... we did not rush him back, and we missed him. We needed him that year.”

“It’s definitely really scary,” Kriener said. “The second one was pretty bad. I actually had one the last day of spring workouts my junior year, too. I’ve definitely had my share of head trauma.”

That’s why he has appreciated his chances with the Hawkeyes the last two seasons.

Kriener averaged 5.7 points and three rebounds last season in helping Iowa to the NCAA tournament. Four of his double-digit scoring games came in late December and early January, when he averaged 10.4 points and three rebounds.

Kriener started twice last season, and he’s had six starts this season, five in place of guard CJ Fredrick when he was injured.

“He was great the last two years, because he can come off the bench and score,” McCaffery said. “He can come off the bench and lead. He can come off the bench and bring toughness, and he can come off the bench and be a defender. He can switch ball screens and guard small guys. He can close and contest at the rim and block shots. Just phenomenally valuable, and one thing I always say about him is he's not out there making mistakes, plays within himself. He has a complete skill set.”

“We play really well together,” center Luka Garza said. “And I think we’ve shown that in three years of playing together. The most important thing he’s done for me is just working out against him — every practice leading up to the season, just battling. He’s tough to guard. Offensively, he can do it all — he can shoot threes, he can post up and score, mid-range, he can do everything. He presents challenges for me on both ends, and I think that’s what has helped me so much.

“A lot of guys don’t have that luxury of, when they go to practice, play against a big of his caliber. I think that’s really helped me.”

Kriener remembered when McCaffery called and offered him a scholarship. He took some time to think about it.

About six hours, he said.

“It wasn’t quite, ‘That was it.’ I had to think about it to be sure,” Kriener said, smiling. “But it was pretty much ‘That was it.’

“It wasn’t on-the-spot. But it was close. Very close.”

It’s about to end for Kriener. He’s not ready to think about that.

“There will be plenty of time to enjoy that,” he said, “when the work is done.”