Kerr Kriisa (born 2 January 2001) is an Estonian

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

player for the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

. He previously played for the

Arizona Wildcats The Arizona Wildcats are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Arizona, located in Tucson, Arizona, Tucson. The Wildcats compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Divis ...

and

West Virginia Mountaineers The West Virginia Mountaineers are the athletic teams that represent West Virginia University, an American university located in Morgantown, West Virginia. The school is a member of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. The Moun ...

. Listed at and , he plays the

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

position. A native of

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

, he has competed with Estonian junior national teams on multiple occasions.

Early career

2016–2018: Early years

Kriisa played for the youth teams of his hometown club

BC Tartu University of Tartu basketball team ( et, link=no, Tartu Ülikooli korvpallimeeskond ), for sponsorship reasons known as Tartu Ülikool Maks & Moorits, is a professional basketball team based in Tartu, Estonia. The team plays in the Latvian–Est ...

since he was 12 years old and debuted with Tartu Ülikool in the

2016–17 KML season The 2016–17 Korvpalli Meistriliiga season (also known as the Alexela Korvpalli Meistriliiga for sponsorship reasons) was the 92nd season of top-tier basketball in Estonia. Kalev/Cramo came into the season as defending champions of the 2015– ...

at the age of 15. In September 2017 he signed with

Brose Bamberg Brose Bamberg is a German professional basketball team from Bamberg, Franconia / North Bavaria. The club has won the German Championship title nine times and the German Cup five times. The club currently plays in the German top tier Basketba ...

and started playing in their affiliate team

Baunach Young Pikes Baunach Young Pikes is a German professional basketball club, that is based in Baunach. It is the basketball section of the multi-sports club 1. FC Baunach. The team currently plays in the ProA, the German national second division. The club has ...

. His stint in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

was cut short due to

periostitis Periostitis, also known as periostalgia, is a medical condition caused by inflammation of the periosteum, a layer of connective tissue that surrounds bone. The condition is generally chronic, and is marked by tenderness and swelling of the bone an ...

and he returned to Estonia for treatment.

2018–2020: Žalgiris

In August 2018, he signed with Žalgiris. In his first year with the

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

team Kriisa played on the Lithuanian second league (NKL) team Žalgiris-2 and also for the youth team in the

Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament The Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament is an international boy's youth age basketball tournament that is contested between the best basketball clubs in Europe in the Under-18 age category. The tournament is organized by Euroleague Ba ...

. He was awarded with the MVP and All-Tournament Team honours at the Kaunas Qualifying Tournament. Kriisa averaged 17.3 points, 4.7 assists and 2.7 rebounds over 7 games in the 2018–19 season of Next Generation Tournament. Kriisa made his EuroLeague debut for Žalgiris on 25 October 2019 and scored his first point from a

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the Key (basketball), restricted ...

as Žalgiris defeated

LDLC ASVEL ASVEL Basket, commonly known as ASVEL or sometimes as ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, and also known as LDLC ASVEL for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional basketball team that is located in the city of Villeurbanne, which is a suburb of Lyon ...

70–56 in the Regular Season Round 4 game. In November 2019 Kriisa was sent on loan to another

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

n team CBet Prienai to gain experience in the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

(LKL). His loan spell ended in January 2020 and Kriisa returned to Žalgiris-2.

College career

2020–2023: Arizona Wildcats

On April 18, 2020, Kriisa committed to play

in the United States for

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. Analysts considered him to be the best European

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * '' Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (E ...

considering playing at the collegiate level. After head coach

Sean Miller Sean Edward Miller (born November 17, 1968) is an American college basketball coach who currently serves as head coach of the Xavier Musketeers men's basketball, Xavier Musketeers. He previously was in that position from 2004 to 2009, after whi ...

was fired, he entered the

NCAA transfer portal The NCAA transfer portal is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) application, database, and compliance tool launched on October 15, 2018, to manage and facilitate the process for student athletes seeking to transfer between member i ...

while leaving the option of returning to Arizona open. New head coach

Tommy Lloyd Tommy Lloyd (born December 21, 1974) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach at the Arizona Wildcats men's team of the Pac-12 Conference. Playing career Lloyd was born in Kelso, Washington and attended Kelso High School, ...

was able to recruit him back to Arizona for his sophomore season. As a junior, Kriisa averaged 9.9 points and 5.1 assists per game. Following the 2022–23 season, Kriisa announced that he would enter the transfer portal again.

2023–24: West Virginia Mountaineers

Kriisa announced on April 5, 2023 that he intended to transfer to

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. After head coach

Bob Huggins Robert Edward Huggins (born September 21, 1953) is an American college basketball coach. Nicknamed “Huggy Bear,” he is currently the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball team. Huggins previously held the head coach ...

resigned following a

DUI Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

arrest, Kriisa initially announced on June 23 he was reentering the transfer portal. NCAA rules allow any student-athlete to enter the portal within 30 days after a head coaching change. Two days later, after top Huggins assistant Josh Eilert was named interim head coach for the 2023–24 season, Kriisa left the portal and announced he would stay at West Virginia. After drawing an NCAA suspension for the first nine games of the 2023–24 season, Kriisa returned to start the rest of the Mountaineers' games, averaging 11.0 points and 4.7 assists and also leading the team in three-pointers. With a fifth year of college eligibility due to the NCAA granting such to all basketball players active in the

COVID Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

-impacted 2020–21 season, Kriisa entered the transfer portal again at the end of the 2023–24 season, announcing on May 1 that he would play his final college season at Kentucky.

National team career

Kriisa has represented the Estonia national U-16 team at the

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

and 2017 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championships and the Estonia national U-18 team at the 2019 FIBA Europe Under-18 Division B Championship.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Žalgiris , 1 , , 0 , , 2.1 , , .000 , , .000 , , .500 , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , , 1.0 , , .0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 1 , , 0 , , 2.1 , , .000 , , .000 , , .500 , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , , 1.0 , , .0

College

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 8 , , 5 , , 22.9 , , .333 , , .368 , , 1.000 , , .5 , , 2.4 , , .4 , , .0 , , 5.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 31 , , 29.6 , , .348 , , .336 , , .816 , , 2.5 , , 4.7 , , .6 , , .1 , , 9.7 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 35 , , 34 , , 31.1 , , .372 , , .366 , , .767 , , 2.4 , , 5.1 , , .6 , , .0 , , 9.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;",

, 23 , , 23 , , 33.5 , , .429 , , .424 , , .775 , , 2.5 , , 4.7 , , .8 , , 0.0 , , 11.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 99 , , 93 , , 30.5 , , .375 , , .368 , , .788 , , 2.3 , , 4.7 , , .6 , , .1 , , 9.7

Personal life

Kerr is the son of former professional basketball player

Valmo Kriisa Valmo Kriisa (born 18 May 1974 in Pärnu, Estonia) is an Estonian former professional basketball player. He played at the point guard and shooting guard positions. Kriisa started his senior club career with "KK Tartu" team (Tartu Ülikool/Rock) in ...

. He is named after

Steve Kerr Stephen Douglas Kerr (born September 27, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a nine-time NBA champion, havi ...

, who also played basketball at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

References

External links

West Virginia Mountaineers bioArizona Wildcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kriisa, Kerr 2001 births Living people Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players BC Žalgiris players Estonian expatriate basketball people in Germany Estonian expatriate basketball people in Lithuania Estonian expatriate basketball people in the United States Estonian men's basketball players Point guards Sportspeople from Tartu University of Tartu basketball team players West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball players