Iowa Basketball Adds Ben Krikke

Valpo Big Man Chooses Hawkeyes Out of Portal

Valparaiso's Ben Krikke (23) drives to the basket as Mississippi's Jayveous McKinnis (0) defends on Dec 10, 2022 in Oxford, Miss. (Petre Thomas/USA TODAY Sports)

Iowa Basketball has been pursuing big men in the transfer portal this spring. It hit paydirt on Monday when Valparaiso's Ben Krikke announced on social media he'd be a Hawkeye. 

Krikke hails from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The Valparaiso website lists him at 6-foot-9, 220 pounds. By comparison, outgoing big man, Filip Rebraca, is listed by Iowa at 6-9, 230.

CSC named Krikke a second-team Academic All-America in 2022-23. He led the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring at 19.4 points per game overall and 21.0 in conference play, shooting 55.2 percent from the field and 79.6 from the free-throw line. He also contributed 5.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in starting all of the team's 32 games. 

On3 ranks Krikke as the No. 87 overall player available in the transfer portal at the time of publishing. 247Sports rates him 35th, and Rivals puts him 10th. 

Krikke's addition leaves Iowa with two known open scholarships for '23-24. It's scheduled to bring in two more transfer portal targets later this month in Wofford's B.J. Mack and Jordan Minor of Merrimack. 

In addition to Rebraca exhausting his eligibility, Hawkeye big Josh Ogundele is in the portal and not expected to come back to the program after doing so last year. Leading rebounder Kris Murray, a junior, is putting his name in the NBA Draft and likely a first-round pick.