Born April 24th, 1998 Ryan Kriener’s life was made for basketball. Born to parents Nancy and Rich Kriener, both over the heights of six foot four inches, Ryan’s life of basketball was shaped for him. Ryan was born in small town New Hampton, Iowa, where he grew up doing various things.

Ryan liked to play with his friends and also liked to dance. Never really being apart of organized group, just always breaking out into rhythm. If you know Ryan now, you know Ryan is not afraid to dance in any setting.

Ryan started playing basketball at age three, and his parent’s also claimed “he was the biggest three year old ever.”  “I want to play basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes someday,” said little Ryan Kriener. Jumping forward to high school, Ryan played high school basketball at New Hampton, but after his sophomore season, he decided to get himself more ready for the next level and play at Spirit Lake high school.

In his junior season at Spirit Lake is when Ryan made himself known. Averaging 19.8 points per game and 8.5 rebounds per game. Ryan knew he had made the right choice when he got his first phone call from a division one program. “TCU was the first to call, and I knew I was on the right track,” said Kriener.

“TCU offer was nice, but I had bigger aspirations. Coach K and Duke could of called, but I definitely would of stuck with Iowa if coach McCaffery and Iowa had offered me at that point.” Iowa did come knocking, later on in the year over the summer between his junior and senior season when he was playing AAU for the Martin Bros at the AAU National Tournament.

Kriener and his Martin Bros team went on to play out of their minds and go on to win the AAU National Championship. Little did he know what would happen next. Head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes Fran McCaffery was watching one of his future players, Cordell Pemsl, who was Ryan’s AAU teammate.

Ryan recalled the memory very vividly saying, “Coach McCaffery said, ‘hey Cordell bring over those two teammates of yours’ referring to me and Jordan (Bohannon).”

At that moment, Ryan’s childhood dream would come true, “Jordan and Ryan, how would you guys like to be Iowa Hawkeyes, because I am offering you both full scholarships.” Ryan remembers not being able to answer the question. Of course he wanted to say yes, but started to go through every memory of basketball in his head.

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Role at Iowa

Ride at Iowa

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