Kerr Kriisa the Latest to Join Kentucky Men’s Basketball
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Adding to the backcourt, Kentucky men’s basketball head coach Mark Pope announced on Thursday that Kerr Kriisa (pronounced KREE-suh), a 6-foot-3 veteran guard who has played at both Arizona and West Virginia, will transfer to Kentucky ahead of the 2024-25 season. He will have one season of eligibility remaining.
Kriisa, who hails from Tartu, Estonia, played three seasons with Arizona before transferring to West Virginia for the 2023-24 campaign. This past year, Kriisa averaged 11.0 points, 4.7 assists and 2.5 rebounds for the Mountaineers across 23 games played. For his college career, Kriisa has averaged 9.7 points, 4.7 assists and 2.3 rebounds in 99 total games, including 93 starts.
“Kerr Kriisa is one of the best shooters in the country,” Pope said. “I feel like I’ve been recruiting him for the last five or six years since he was a prep player. He is one of the most experienced guards in all of college basketball. Kerr played on some great Arizona teams and then, last year, in the hallowed halls of West Virginia. He has a competitive spirit that overflows in every way conceivable. Kerr will have a massive impact on our team on the court and in the locker room. Kentucky fans are going to love his bold personality.”
Kriisa made a large impact from the start during his year in Morgantown. He poured in 20 points and dished out seven assists during his WVU debut vs. Massachusetts, his first of four 20-point efforts on the season. Against Toledo, Kriisa registered a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists, becoming the first West Virginia player to have 10 or more assists in a game in five years.
The guard continued to prove himself in conference play, going off for 21 points and six made 3s on the road at Oklahoma State, before scoring 23 against Pope’s BYU squad in early February. He erupted for a career-high 25 points on the Mountaineers’ trip to Kansas State later that month.
For the season, Kriisa finished with 13 double-figure scoring efforts, 18 games with at least three assists and 11 outings with three or more 3s.
At Arizona, Kriisa was a game-changing facilitator, leading the Pac-12 in assists during both his sophomore and junior seasons. He was the first player to lead the league in assists in back-to-back years since Brandon Granville of USC in 2000 and 2001. A capable shooter from outside, Kriisa finished his time at UA ranking 10th in program history with 177 made 3-pointers. He also became one of just five players in Pac-12 history to record multiple triple-doubles in a career, joining Jason Kidd, Andre Iguodala, Loren Woods and Luke Jackson. Kriisa recorded his first triple-double during the 2021-22 season, notching 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists at Utah. He followed that up during his junior season with 14 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds against Southern.
During his three years in Tucson, Kriisa and the Wildcats went a combined 78-20, won two Pac-12 tournaments, one Pac-12 regular season title and made three NCAA Tournament appearances, including receiving a No. 1 seed in 2022.
Prior to college, Kriisa spent time playing for Prienai CBet and Zalgiris II Kaunsas in Lithuania. He has experience playing with the Estonian national team and was a driving force behind the nation’s first-ever win over the Lithuanian national team in the summer of 2020.
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