Looks can be deceiving
Behind the smile is a competitor
April 18, 2010
Special from the Columbia Daily Tribune
Over past four years, Rock Bridge boys basketball Coach Jim Scanlon can’t easily recall a day when Ricky Kreklow didn’t come to the gym with a grin on his face.
“I’ve never seen him not happy,” Scanlon said. “Every practice, he’s got a smile on his face. That’s just him.”
But don’t let Kreklow’s laid-back personality and choirboy looks fool you. There is an edge there, an edge that helped the 6-foot-6 sharpshooter and future Missouri Tiger earn the title of Mr. Show-Me Basketball as the state’s top senior boys basketball player.
“He’s a happy guy. He’s a smiling guy. But down deep, he’s very competitive,” Scanlon said. “I’ve seen that before. When he’s challenged and tested, he can get pretty competitive.”
Kreklow’s competitive nature was never more evident than in his final high school game when 6-5 Holt forward Dantiel Daniels manhandled an assortment of Rock Bridge defenders to score 20 first-half points and put the Bruins in a 32-22 halftime hole.
With his high school playing career in jeopardy, Kreklow offered to defend Daniels.
“I think he just said, ‘Let me guard him,’ ” Scanlon recalled.
With Kreklow leaning and pounding on Daniels in the paint, the Holt standout did not score in the third quarter. Heading into the final quarter, Rock Bridge had knotted the score at 38. Kreklow picked up his fourth foul early in the fourth, however, allowing Daniels to score eight more points and Holt to nudge back in front for a 51-50 upset.
Known primarily for his long-range shooting touch, Kreklow, who scored a team-high 19 points in the loss, had displayed a different twist to his game by pulling his team back into contention with some gritty defense.
“It’s kind of always been there,” Kreklow said, smiling of course. “It’s somewhat of a stereotype that shooters aren’t athletic, they can’t really play defense and all they do is kind of run around the 3-point line. I’ve tried to break out of that. I’ve been working on defense a lot just so I don’t seem like a one-dimensional player.”
Kreklow was hardly one-dimensional during a senior season that saw him lead a deep 20-6 Rock Bridge squad in scoring (16.8), rebounding (6.0), steals (58) and 3-pointers (73 of 201). He was also second on the team with 91 assists.
Averaging more than 11 points since he started coming off the bench for the Bruins as a sophomore, Kreklow was a two-time all-state selection and finished his career with 1,108 points.
“You have to consider him one of the best that’s played here,” Scanlon said. “We’ve had so many good players and good kids. Ricky’s right up there toward the top.”
Kreklow’s size and all-around skill made him a target of several Division I programs. He seriously considered offers from Virginia and Stanford before deciding to stay in Columbia, where his parents, Wayne and Susan Kreklow, coach the Missouri women’s volleyball team.
“I did kind of want to leave and get out and try new things, but I could tell the” basketball “program was going to be really good,” Kreklow said. “I wanted to jump on this. … I really like the way they play. Everything is open. It’s a system that attracts a lot of high-level players.”
And Kreklow is clearly one of those players.
Other finalists for Mr. Show-Me Basketball included Zack Kleine, Mount Vernon; Eric Clark, Cardinal Ritter; Nathan Scheer, St. Francis Borgia; Jacob Becker, Steelville; Preston Guiot, Bolivar; and Dillon Starzl, Kearney.