Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Basketball lands a portal target in Ben Krikke, What's happening in the portal with the women?

Episode Date: April 11, 2023

Iowa Basketball lands a portal target in Ben Krikke, What's happening in the portal with the women?Iowa picks up Ben Krikke from Valpo in the transfer portal. What's next for the Hawkeye men and then looking at the women's side.Plus the weekend in Iowa softball and baseball.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The transfer portal is officially open, at least for the Hawkeyes. They get their first commitment today from Ben Kricke, a big man out of Valpo. The Hawkeyes doing work in the portal. We'll talk about that. What else is out there? And also look at the women today on Locked on Hawkeyes. You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Hey, welcome in. I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. Make sure you hit that subscribe button there. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Skip trips to the grocery store and count on Halal Fresh to make home cooking easy, fun, and affordable. That's why it's America's number one meal kit. Go to HelloFresh.com slash College60 and use code College60 for 60% off plus free shipping.

Thanks for hopping in with us here today on Locked On, Hawkeyes. We got a busy one, a lot of basketball conversation. Spring football continues. A great weekend from the Iowa softball team not so good on the baseball side of things as they fall two out of three to Indiana we'll get into all that here today but we kick things off with the news here from earlier this afternoon as Iowa has picked up a commitment from Ben Crickey a six foot nine big man from Val Perez now Crickey was a first teamMissouri Valley Conference player a year ago.

Put up huge numbers last season. A Valpo team that, frankly, was not very good, but averaged 19.5 points per game. Six rebounds, two assists per contest as well. And when you dig into the numbers a little bit deeper, and if you've been with me for a while here on Locked On Hawkeyes, you know that I certainly like the analytical view of things. I do like to take a look at some of those deeper numbers and see if they can paint a little different picture of what is out there.

And when you look at what he does analytically, really good. So I've watched Kriki play quite a few games throughout the course of his career. With my radio job, watch a lot of UNI, watch a lot of Drake games in the Missouri Valley, watch a ton of NBC basketball and just college basketball in general, if you know anything about me. So see, Cricky play a number of times. As mentioned, Valpo's not very good. They were not very good the last couple of seasons, but he's a guy who can get buckets and does a little bit unconventional.

You know, he's not going to athletically. That is not his game. We're not talking about above the rim kind of player. You look at his production compared to Philip Rabracha. And right now that's basically the role that he's going to be filling a kind of another size five, six foot nine, a little more thickness, maybe to his game, not the same kind of athlete that Rabracha is. And I think that shows up certainly in the rebounding numbers that you see averaging is 5.9 boards per game, but unconventional offensively, he can play with both hands incredibly well.

Left hand, right hand gets the jump hook off. One thing that I really like about his game, he's a guy that understands absorbing contact and going against even bigger players. He's really good, really deft at getting those kind of shots off, creating a little bit of space in a bunch of different ways. You're going to love his footwork. You're going to love what he's able to do in the paint. And that's one of the numbers that really jumped off the page to me

towards the top in the country in terms of post offense. One of the top players in the country back to the basket in post-up situations. Some of the metrics out there have him averaging right at 1.13 points per post-up. Those are incredible numbers, some of the best in the country. So when you're looking at efficiency on that end of the floor, that's really good. He's a rim runner, he'll get out,

not gonna play much defense. Now he'll fit in incredibly well in the Iowa system doing that, but this is gonna be a guy that's gonna score. I think this is gonna be a guy that really are going to be excited about what he is, what he is going to add to this team. A fifth-year senior, he's going to come in.

Just one season of eligibility remaining for Kricke, but a player that I think was good. And reading through the lines a little bit. So this past weekend, Iowa brought in two prospects on their visits. They brought in Kricke, and they also brought in Rink Mast, and another Missouri Valley Conference player, another good player from the MVC. And it sounded like on Iowa's board, they had Krikey a little bit higher than they had Mast. They like both players. They brought him in for a visit. Obviously, they like both guys if they're willing to do that.

But I think it shows you that of the two, that Krikey was probably the one that they wanted a little bit more. And then they want to pair whoever they got out of those two with their next wave that is coming in. And we're going to get into that a little bit later on. There's been a lot of talk about a couple of guys and guys that are scheduled to take visits, though one of them might be off the board in Jordan Minor from Miramac. We'll talk about that here coming up in just a little bit. But back to the comps here, the comparisons. I talked to an assistant coach in the NBC.

One thing that they mentioned to me is if they had the choice, not knowing the makeup of a team or anything like that, just saying in general, they thought the Crickie had the chance to maybe blossom into a little bit better player. Didn't shoot it great from the outside a year ago. Didn't take a ton of threes, but that was a part of his game that he developed. And I think it's still developing. I think that's going to be a huge part of what he's going to work on this off season, because as mentioned, post-up offense, very good with the drive. He is surprisingly good also with that ability to, to get a step on guys,

get the angle on players. He's really good at that. You saw that really go into his game this season. He could take it to the top of saw that really go into his game this season. He could take it to the top of the key, beat a guy off the bounce, get into the paint, had a little pull-up game. Every once in a while, he'd go with the spin move, but mostly it was beating guys off the bounce and getting to the rim in that direction. Now the pick and pop. We saw what a huge part of the offense that was, obviously, going back to Luka Garza. And this is not to say that he's going to turn into Luka Garza. Let's slow down on those kind of comparisons.

But we did see that out of Filipe Obracha. That was not part of his game where he could pick and pop back and hit the open three-pointer from the top of the key. I think you're going to get that ability a little bit more from Kriki. So a big pickup, a nice pickup here, but Iowa can't be done. And this cannot be all that they get out of the portal. We've talked a lot about Evan Brown's Iowa City kid possibly coming back. Nothing official on that front. A lot of conversation. Maybe he would be a walk-on and that would help. A guy that could

go in there, give you 8, 10, 12 minutes a game as maybe your third kind of big guy in the middle. I think that would be a big help. Another guy from the Missouri Valley Conference this past season at Belmont as they made the move up. So those are some names that are out there. We're going to talk a little bit more about the other potential because it feels like Iowa, they are still wanting to pair two guys together and finding that right combination, that right move. B.J. Mack, possibility.

Jordan Miner will get into both of those prospects. What's the latest buzz on that front? There's buzz in the transfer portal also on the women's side. Well, Trent, the women, they're full right now. Their scholarships are full. Brad Heinrichs, who runs the Iowa Swarm, the collective NIL for the University of Iowa, had some interesting comments today with Pat Hardy at Hawk Fanatic. We'll talk about that as well and the potential, even without an open scholarship,

Iowa and the Swarm Collective can make it happen for a walk-on candidate even if they deserve to be obviously a scholarship player we'll dig into that as we continue here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast today's episode of Locked On Hawkeyes is brought to you by FanDuel well here we are baseball season is here grand slams no hit double plays, they're all back. And there's no better place to get in on all the MLB action than FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can step to the plate with a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. Just go to FanDuel.com slash locked on to sign up, place your first bet, and get up to $1,000 back in bonus bets if you don't win.

Don't miss your chance at a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000 when you join Fanduel today. Just go to Fanduel.com slash Locked On to sign up. Fanduel, official partner of Major League Baseball. Trent Cotton back with you once again here on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. So step one is done. Iowa went to the portal. They picked up a commitment.

And now Ben Crickey will be part of Iowa's basketball team next season. As mentioned, though, they still need more. They want to combine a couple of guys together. You look at the roster. I mean, there's just not a whole lot to be excited about what they are, what they can be, and the potential certainly there for Iowa basketball. So what is next? What else is Iowa going to be looking at in the portal? Well, one of the names that has been out there is Jordan Miner. He was the player of the year in the Northeast Conference at Merrimack. Merrimack

was not eligible for the NCAA tournament. Because of that, we saw Fairleigh Dickinson go to the NCAA tournament. Of course, we know what happened there. 16-over-1 as Purdue goes down in the opening round. A team comprised of nobody taller than 6'6". Well, this guy's taller than 6'6", but the reports here into late Monday look like his commitment, though not imminent, he is very close to committing to Virginia.

So that is out there right now. Virginia appears to be the frontrunner for him. If that is the case, then Iowa will turn their attention to B.J. Mack. B.J. Mack, a really fun player and really the combination of him playing together with what they have in Ben Kricke, I think leads to a lot of excitement. It leads to two guys that work in tandem. Neither of them are your prototypical Big Ten center, right?

That's 6'11", 255 pound behemoth. That's not what either of these guys are. What BJ Mack has, though, is he is a guy that can step out. We mentioned Kricke. I think something that can develop, he can become a better shooter from outside, but that's not a huge part of his game right now. On the other side, though, with a player like B.J. Mack, that is what he is. He is a volume shooter.

He has scored at high levels. He did it at Wofford, and a Wofford program that has been very successful. They had a step back this year, but year after year, they're very good. He's put up good numbers. Now, Iowa was recruiting against the SEC. His final four, or final five, excuse me, four SEC teams and Iowa involved in the mix. So it's going to come up to, as mentioned, Brad Heinrichs, the leader of the Iowa NIL, Iowa Swarm, is where he can go if you want to donate and help out a little bit,

getting these guys to campus and making things a little bit better. But it's going to be some work to overcome Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, some of the big names that are involved for B.J. Mack out of Wofford. Playing time, Iowa has that. And I think when he comes on his visit coming up this weekend, that's what Iowa's going to work to sell him, is not just the nil opportunities and the chance to make some money and that's going to be there as as we know

that they have been able to do and certainly i was in a lot better spot this year than they were a year ago at this time when you know they were on fardaz amok and that didn't turn out he went to texas deck and now is going to finish his career excuse me me, at Cal. And going back to recruiting at the high school level that we saw last year. And there were some guys that were in very deep on that ultimately Iowa couldn't get done because of NIL. That has changed. Now, it's not to say that Iowa's flush with money right now. Needs to be better.

Needs to have more. And anybody that's involved with the swarm will tell you the exact same thing. But they're on better footing, certainly at this point in time. Look, are they going to be able to compete maybe with some of the top NILs out there right now? Not going to happen. But they can at least compete with a lot of teams of similar level. You'd say, what, right now, maybe top 40, top 50 in college basketball is probably where Iowa is. Still work to be done there.

And there's a lot of schools out there. You know, you think of the private schools, you think of what we see over at Creighton and what they have been able to develop here the last couple of years. When you think of Creighton, you think of the insurance money over there, the Buffett money and everything else that's happening in Omaha. And they're the only show in town, right? There's no football team at Creighton. There's no football team at Villanova.

There's no football team at St. John's. Those kind of programs, that is where their money all goes. It goes to basketball. And even if it's both men's and women's basketball, you're talking about, what, 28 scholarships in comparison to the 85 scholarships on the football side of things. So that's kind of the yin and yang

that is happening right now. But Iowa in good shape going into this. BJ Mack is the biggest name, though. The most realistic, as it looks like Jordan Minor very well well could be off the board and might be off the board by the time that you're listening to that. Iowa's in good shape, though. Good to see step one is down. One other thing I would love to see this Iowa team do in the portal is look for another guard. Look for somebody to help out, Be it a guy that's kind of a combo guard, can play point, can play two guard, maybe a little help shooting. I think that could be

something that could be a help out because going into the season next year, feel good about Tony Perkins. You feel good about Peyton Sanford. Crikey, he's going to come in. Feels like he'll be a day one starter for you. You got Patrick McCaffrey, but the questions remain. Now, if they're going to hand the keys off to DeSante Bowen, and they're going to say, young man, this team is yours. Point guards put up good numbers in the McCaffrey system. We've seen that time in and time out. We've seen it done in all different shapes and sizes throughout the years. You go into that system, you have a chance to put up

some really good offensive numbers. I would love to see Iowa go out there, though, find a guy that can run a little backup point, can do those kind of things, come off the bench. Somebody that I mentioned, not a big name, but Makari Evelyn from four years ago, a player like that. If they go out there, they're able to get, say, a B.J. Mack, help out inside.

You got two big guys in there and look for that backup combo guard, a guy that maybe is willing to be a backup that just wants the opportunity to play in the Big Ten. There's still a ton of guys out there. There's still a ton of talent out there and teams that can help out. And a guy maybe that if it doesn't go very well with DeSante Bowen, and we don't see that leap during his sophomore year, and it's a disappointment. You have a guy that you can turn to and fill that role because right now on the roster at Nimmers, I know he put out his video after the season,

redshirted this year from the Quad Cities. A lot of people got excited about him. Well, remember, this is a guy that was a walk-on. This is a guy that didn't have a ton of high D1 interest coming out of high school and probably more of a developmental guy that has a lot of work to do. Yeah, can you get excited about him?

He is a different kind of athlete than what you normally get out of the walk-on candidates, right? We're not talking about the old gray shirts here. BJ Taronis. We're not talking about that. We're talking about a guy that's got some wiggle to him, got some hops to his game, got some athleticism and maybe some excitement there, but that's not kind of the way you want to go into next season. Brock Harding also comes in at the point guards position. We'll see, undersized, but boy, he filled it up over the state of Illinois on the Illinois side of the border and what he was able to do leading his team along with Owen Freeman over at Moline to a state championship

this year. So that's the point guard situation. Something I like to see, veteran presence, a guy that can help out a little bit, but still the biggest is continuing on this path. Fight another big. Hope it's BJ Mack. I really like his game. I think it would complement what they got in Cricky incredibly well. We got a lot more going on. The transfer portal also open on the women's basketball side, and there is a lot of talk out there.

Well, Iowa doesn't have a scholarship. What does it mean? We'll get into that next year on Locked On Hawkeyes. Trent Conant back with you one final time on Locked On Hawkeyes. As always, thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Hit that subscribe button right now if you're on YouTube. Greatly appreciate it if you're on YouTube. Greatly appreciate it. If you're on the podcast side, make sure you're also you're over there and hitting the five-star rating. That's what we're looking for. All the metrics, all the analytics, they help us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. As we continue, let's jump over to women's basketball. So as we've talked about in

the past year, I was full. They have all 15 scholarships that have been used. Question has continued to come up. Ava Jones, after that devastating accident that she was involved in, as her family was hit by a driver in Louisville a couple of summers back, she is not ready for basketball. Had another surgery this past weekend, and though she is still going to be on scholarship, the question is, what scholarship is it? Because once she becomes a medical scholarship candidate and though her scholarship will still be awarded, she's not able to play. Well, once you go down that path,

you're not eligible to come back unless there was an open scholarship during these years. So interesting. Mention what Pat Hardy and Suter were having over on the Hawk Fanatic podcast and radio show earlier today. And talking to Brad Heinrichs of the Iowa Swarm, he mentioned that Iowa could use NIL money to give to a walk-on candidate. So be that some of the big names that are out there.

And the one that obviously comes to mind, and there's been so much talk about the 6'7 center from Stanford and Betts and the possibility that maybe she would be a potential place that they could go, something that would make a lot of sense for Iowa going forward. Lauren Betts, she was number one player of the country a couple of years back, has a connection. Madison O'Grady and her, they were teammates in high school, played Team USA basketball with Kaitlin Clark. A lot of connections there.

And if those connections make sense, and if she wants to come to Iowa and there isn't a scholarship open, that Iowa can make that work in the NIL space. That's something very exciting because another thing that we've talked about is it's just difficult to envision with the way that this program has been built with Kaitlyn Clark, with the team, what they are, and what Coach Bluter and company have done for them to run somebody off. Now, Lisa Bluter is also going to be very frank. She's going to tell players, hey, there's not going to be much playing time. If you'd like to enter the portal, if we can help you out, we absolutely would do that.

And those conversations are going to be coming. In fact, this week, I believe, is when the individual one-on-one conversations are happening with all the players. Coach Bluter, she's been out and about with Kaitlin collecting the national awards, and she's been out there. But when she gets back, those are going to be conversations that are going to be had. And very well could happen that we find out late this week that, yes, a couple of players have decided to enter the portal, and they're going to see what else is out there. That's still a real possibility. But if it doesn't happen, it's good to know that, yes, Iowa can go that route. They can have a player come in as a walk-on.

This is not the old days as well where walk-ons couldn't get food, weren't able to have the meal plan that these scholarship athletes have. That's not the case anymore. The NCAA, one of the few things that they've done well is that and allowing walk-ons to have many of the same things that the scholarship athletes have. You know, the study help, those kind of things that is now also available to walk-on candidates. So that's something to look at, something to keep an eye on. There's a lot of names out there, a lot of talk, but a good, at least, reminder that this is a possibility that they can go that route.

I'll tell you, Lauren Betts, if they could find a spot for her, that would change the trajectory. We've also talked a little bit in the past about the DePaul power forward possibility of maybe her coming in, in Anisha Morrow from DePaul, who averaged 25.5 points, 12.5 rebounds. That sounds pretty good as well. Running back for another season with what they have coming back. And we also don't know what Coach Bluter believes about this team.

Maybe she thinks that they're fine, that they really believe, and Jan Jansen, what she does with post players. I know Grady's going to take a huge step. I continue to talk about going back to when we saw Monica Sinato the first time during her freshman campaign compared to what she turned into and those kind of steps. And could you see that kind of leap coming for O'Grady? It wouldn't surprise me just because of obviously what we've seen

Jan Jensen do throughout the years with post players and the way that they have developed under her tutelage. It's a real thing. Hey, jumping over to a little hardball from over the weekend, the softball team got a nice sweep against Michigan State, went out there. Michigan State's toward the bottom of the Big Ten standings but to go out there win all three games put themselves in really good position going forward here as we go into the back half of the year Hawkeyes sit now at 26 and 15 they'll have a tilt in the midweek against Drake before another Big Ten conference matchup coming up over

the weekend but I went a good spot right now still got work to do got to get a lot of wins I got to pile up some of those wins against some quality competition but at least with the puncher's chance here uh maybe snipping back to the ncaa tournament it's been a long time since we've seen that softball team there remember what gail blevins did leading that team to college world series and how good that program was and coach galefsi has them on their way back it appears and uh heading in good stuff and also seen a lot of young players also helping out there the iowa baseball team tough weekend got the first game against indiana came back dropped the final two huge opportunity that was in front of them there lost two out of three to maryland now lost two out of three against indiana and now what goes

forward to them nebraska they have them a little bit later in the season. A couple of matchups, but those were their best opportunities to improve the RPI, put themselves in a really good spot to be an NCAA tournament team. They got work to do now. Got to bounce back. Got to find a way as the bats went really cold over the weekend and get that offense generated as well. Did it against a tough Indiana team.

Indiana came in, I believe, 29 in the RPI before the weekend began. Knew they were going to be good, and boy, just would have been nice to get one more game. Iowa's got to dig themselves out of a little bit hole now, but looking at it on paper, probably their two most difficult matchups were against Maryland and against Indiana, and though they went two and four in those matchups, it also wasn't devastating. Didn't get swept out of it. We got more baseball talk coming your way. We got spring football talk as well this week. Plenty to get into.

There's always something happening. We'll keep an eye on that. Transfer portal as well here on Locked On Hawkeyes. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. And also don't forget what we have going on right now with the NFL draft right around the corner. Guys doing a great job over there, getting you ready for everything happening with the NFL draft. We have our new newsletter that is out. You can go right now to the newsletter and get signed up every day. You'll get the top story from the NFL draft from our expert, Luke Inman, a top five ranking, all the positions and links to all the content across the Locked On Network.

Just go to LockedOnPodcast.com slash newsletter for your chance to sign up for that. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Great day to be a Hawkeye. We got one in the portal. Let's keep the momentum going this weekend. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks.