Ryan Kriener
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What's the rest of the stat line? Kriener is another long player. Hope he is a good to great one.
Good to hear, it would be fantastic if he turned into a serviceable big ten center. For those in the know, what's your opinion of him?
18-21 FG
4-6 FT
8 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 steals
Struggled mightily again versus Hull Western Christian, though. Josh Van Lingen just seems to get the best of him each time they play. Must not be a good match up for him.
If he did, he was 0-fer. 4 FT and 18 2pt FGs adds up to 40 points.
No he did not and as a team they only took 10 threes vs. The 29 attempts in loss to HWC.
There was some "discussion" after that loss about the lack of effort getting ball inside. Ryan got 6 shot attempts vs HWC. 2 of which from offensive rebounds.
There was some "discussion" after that loss about the lack of effort getting ball inside. Ryan got 6 shot attempts vs HWC. 2 of which from offensive rebounds.
I think he is a guy who can develop quite a bit in college. Not overly athletic but moves quicker than Woody. Not a great outside shooter but can shoot a bit out there. Really reminds me of Jared Bergren from Wisconsin a few years back. 6'9 240 lb guy as well I think.
If he develops a good outside shot look out. He will be a tough guard in college if he continues to develop and would be a great fit for Fran's offense.
I like the fact he is 240 vs. 190 and am perfectly fine if he never develops an outside shot. We need someone capable of playing down low and doing the dirty work. He appears to have some hops, so let him attack the glass and dunk on people. We have plenty of perimeter players to shoot 3's IMO. Return of the Vanilla Gorilla or something like that.
I hope its not the case of him struggling against tall athletic guys. In high school there are a fair amount of guys that are over 6'6" but it seems only 1 in 10 of them are athletic enough to be a quality basketball player even in high school. I knew 2 guys in high school that were over 6'8" and played basketball but neither could dunk and my 6'2" frame could out rebound them. Its hard to measure big guys in high school basketball unless they are going up against quality big guys.
Van Lingen is a really good player and (in my opinion) could play at least at a mid-major, but he's chosen to go to Dordt College instead. Nothing wrong with that, by the way.
I think the fact Kriener did so well on this summer's AAU circuit against (presumably) similar competition gives an indication that he'll do OK. I'm not sure of the ins-and-outs of Hull Western Christian vs. Spirit Lake; ie., types of offenses and defenses, who guards who, etc. But, assuming Kriener and Van Lingen go head to head at both ends of the court it's quite possible it's just not a good match up for Kriener. That happens in basketball sometimes.
I knew a kid from another HS who was 6'8", all-state in Illinois, but just had a devil of a time with our 6'3" center. Held him in check every time we played, I don't think he scored in double figures against us in 2 years. The other guy? He ended up playing for Iowa State, averaging 18 and 8 his senior year and got drafted by the Denver Nuggets (never played). Our 6'3" center? He never played basketball after high school.
Now, I'm certainly not saying Kriener will end up with a career like that, but sometimes players just have an opponent who's like their kryptonite.
Just out of curiosity, who was the 6'8 player that went on to play for ISU and then drafted by the Nuggets? I don't recall any recent players that went to the Nuggets from ISU.
I've seen Ryan play a few times, said it last year and I'll say it again this year. He should be putting up big numbers every night in the Lakes. Most teams won't have a guy bigger than 6-4. He isn't the only scoring option that Spirit Lake has either, so teams can't double/triple team him or they will get burned. Last year he struggled going up against the talented big guys from HWC and Le Mars. Sounds like he struggled against HWC again last week.
His struggles are that the Coach of Spirit Lake likes to run and press and shoot lots of 3's, 6 shots vs. HWC is a great example of why he didn't get the numbers. They settled for 29 three point attempts instead of running any type of 1/2 court offense to take advantage of their stud inside.
I heard there was a closed door "discussion" after the HWC loss and some frustrations aired. Be interesting to see if there is more of a focus on running the offense thru the post more, instead of jacking up 3's?
Give HWC credit, they are a well coached team and it is how they play as a team, not head to head matchups that give someone like Kriener trouble vs. them.
Would be great though if he could become proficient within 15 feet. Hope he is working on that mid-range shot.
I watched him last year as a Junior and unfortunately it was at Hull Western. Ryan did everything right except make the buckets. He had very good footwork inside and made some nice moves but the ball didn't go in the hole for him. HW is a great team for Hi School Bball. I'm not judging him by the 1 game btw. So, hoping his summer was a good one and he does well at Iowa.
I totally agree. I think his frame and foot speed make him a potentially good post player at the next level for rebounds and close shots, regardless of whether he develops an outside game. I watched Reed Nikko again last night (kid going to Missouri, who Iowa was recruiting before Kriener committed) and kids with their size and ability can do so much for a team inside. Reed is developing a really nice baby hook that he didn't have last year, and I'm hoping that Ryan is similarly working on something else to develop his post presence.
Good that is key we dont need any more bigs with shoulders the size of a 5'11" PG and the T-Rex arms that come with them.
Here is what I have gotten from people who were at the game and I also had a chance to watch the game on video. Western basically committee two guys to Kriener. When he was ball side in the post they dropped the perimeter defender as well. Western left 2 or 3 other players open and dared them to shoot. Spirit Lake guarded Van Lingen one on one with Backhaus. Backhaus is the State football QB who was playing his first or second game in two years. Was out for two weeks recovering from concussion at the state football finals. He is an awesome athlete just needs some time to get his basketball skills back. SL is also missing another starter in Hawkins. Strained knee from semi final game. SL has had very little practice which happens when you win football titles. Western in same boat, but they have all the pieces back from last years team, SL is a whole new cast of characters and their young. Young, inexperienced role players with little practice time is not a good combination against coach Ekehoff. But the fact that Backhaus had to start after not playing last year or any summer ball this summer shows how thin SL is. Backhaus will be very good by year end I'm told.
I checked quikstats and it appears Kriener out scored Van Lingen in the second matchup last year which was a very close game, not sure why people say he was outplayed in that game. My friend said most of Spirit Lakes role players wouldn't have played on Westen's JV team. Be careful reading to much into stats. Basketball is a team game and Western may have the best team and best coached team in the entire State this year, all classes.
I checked quikstats and it appears Kriener out scored Van Lingen in the second matchup last year which was a very close game, not sure why people say he was outplayed in that game. My friend said most of Spirit Lakes role players wouldn't have played on Westen's JV team. Be careful reading to much into stats. Basketball is a team game and Western may have the best team and best coached team in the entire State this year, all classes.
Thanks for the reality check. As I noted, I wasn't sure how the match-ups took place; simply acknowledging that there are cases when one player just may have another's number for whatever reason.
If he continues to grow like Brunner did who knows how tall he'll end up...
Well they are a bunch of Midgets
I was at the game last night, Kriener runs the court real well ( was the first one down court on a lot of fast breaks.) seems really smooth in the way he moves pretty good hops, Yes he did have a lot of dunks last night, but you have to put that in perspective with Estherville's tallest kid being around the 6'3 - 6'4 area. E'ville really couldn't stop him once he got the ball down low. Estherville is and has been down as a program for a number of years know. ! thing about S. Lake that IMO could hurt them down the road is they seem really one dimensional and don't seem to be a tight unit. JMO. It's early and things can change.
At least he has ability to throw down a dunk instead of missing chippies. I'm hopeful that Kriener and Cook can give us a dynamic front line. I hope these guys have some post moves. Watching Woody for 4 years...we've never been able to post him up with his back to basket and have him score....maybe Kriener/cook will give us this option. Miss the days of Brunne having a guy with low block moves.
From what I've seen on video, Kriener has good instincts in a crowd down low like Brunner had. I really think that Ryan could be a very solid post player for the Hawks.
Maybe it's just me, but Kriener reminds me a bit of Russ Millard.
We can only hope he has that athleticism. Dude was a heck of a player.
Millard could jump through the roof, but he had troubles in the classroom. A good kid.
