By LARRY VAUGHT
Not only was Kerr Kriisa’s father a professional basketball player, but the Kentucky freshman guard actually played against him.
“I was like 15 and we played against each other in an Estonian Pro League. It was a cool, cool experience,” said Kriisa said. “I won. He actually had a terrible game. I think he made a couple of shots, but they were both in my face. The other seven shots against others, he missed.”
Kriisa’s father named him after Golden State coach Steve Kerr.
“I’m very, very happy with my name,” Kriisa said.
The Estonia native said his father was the biggest influence on his basketball career.
“He’s probably the reason why I started playing basketball. Growing up around basketball from a very early age …I was seven, eight years old. I got to go see film sessions. My dad got chewed out in a film session once. I’m seven years old. I’m crying. I’m like, ‘Damn, the coach is telling my dad these things, you know?’ So it was a super, super cool experience and definitely impacted my basketball career,” Kriisa said.
Kriisa spent the 2019-20 season playing in Lithuania where he averaged 14 points and six assists per game. That’s where he first met Kentucky coach Mark Pope when he came to Lithuania to watch him play but Kriisa signed with Arizona, not BYU.
“It was awesome that he came there to see me but there were more coaches who came over, too, to recruit me,” Kriisa laughed and said. “So it wasn’t like he was the only one who made the trip.”
Kriisa was not cleared by the NCAA until February of his freshman year and started five of the eight games he played. He had a triple-double his sophomore year and ranked first in the Pac-12 in assists (4.7 per game) and third in 3’s per game (2.42). He led the Pac-12 in assists again as a junior, the first Pac-12 player ever to lead the conference in assists in consecutive years. He also had another triple-double.
Kriisa transferred to West Virginia for the 2023-24 season and averaged 11 points and 4.7 assists per game. He had a game-high 23 points against BYU and Pope when he apparently did a bit of trash talking during the game. Pope liked the guards’ competitive spirit and bold personality.
Kriisa didn’t want to agree that he trash talked as much as some are suggesting.
“I’m just being me. I’m not going on a floor thinking that I’m gonna talk trash. I’m just being me,” he said. “I’m just having fun with it. I think basketball is a fun game and I think it just makes it more electric.”
Kriisa didn’t deny possibly trash talking a bit against BYU last season.
“When we played I was definitely excited. I obviously have a long, long relationship with coach Pope and some of the guys (on his staff), so it was for me a special game to play against them,” Kriisa said. “I took that very personally since they had been recruiting me to BYU for quite a while.”
Kriisa knew how big Kentucky basketball was before he got to Lexington because growing up in Estonia he knew then about UK.
“I think the brand is big in the state but I think the brand is worldwide overseas. I mean, it’s a big deal obviously,” Kriisa said. “I am very blessed to be here and can’t take it for granted. I am very happy and thankful for the opportunity.”
He noted that his hometown in Estonia has maybe 100,000 people and “they could all probably fit in Kroger Field” for a UK football game.
“Looking back I probably didn’t know how much the state cares about Kentucky basketball. Obviously, you heard and you know a little bit but not how Kentucky basketball is really the main thing in the state. I think it’s very special. I think it gives us a good way to represent the state to go out and play hard and be like Kentucky people are. They’re hard workers. They give everything they have, and that’s what we’re trying to do this year.”
Kriisa did admit he did not cheer for Kentucky when he watched the Cats play. He compared it to not cheering for the Kansas City Chiefs or the New York Yankees because both teams were such powerhouses.
“No you don’t cheer for … it’s the biggest brand of college basketball and it’s either you love it, love us, or you hate us. So that’s how it is and how I was,” he said.
The fifth-year player has learned several things about Pope he didn’t know starting with he’s funnier than he ever imagined.
“Well, he’s actually sometimes pretty funny. I didn’t know that,” Kriisa said. “He can really coach the hell out of it, too. He cares about his players a lot. He’s honest. He doesn’t tell you something that’s not there. He’s not going to sell you some BS. He’s going to tell you how things are. So I think that’s the most appreciated thing, especially in this college industry where I feel like a lot of kids are getting lied to.
“This is a very big thing about coach Pope that you know and I think that’s a good recruiting pitch. Like I said, in college a lot of kids are getting lied to, sold something that’s not true. With coach Pope, that’s not the case.”
Former UK All-American Jack Givens believes that kind of perspective helps make Kriisa a natural leader.
“You don’t necessarily have to have someone tell you that you are the leader or proclaim you the leader but guys just follow you. I have noticed that with him,” Givens, the UK Radio Network analyst, said. “Guys look to him, especially (freshmen) Trent (Noah) and Travis (Perry). They go to him for leadership. He has been fun to watch.
“He does talk a lot of trash but I played against (former NBA star) Larry Bird and he talked garbage and then would go out and back it up. Kerr talks a lot but he loves playing and I think he also loves leading others.”
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops was visibly frustrated just like UK fans were after his team’s overall play in a 20-13 loss to Vanderbilt.
“I talked all week about controlling our emotions, being disciplined,” Stoops said. “Discipline and execution wins. Emotion and playing stupid is not going to win you anything. I am as frustrated as any fan. I didn’t get it done.”
Stoops admitted that UK “reverted” back to the way it played in a 31-7 loss to South Carolina when mistakes/penalties plagued the Wildcats.
“Why we think you can just roll out on the field and win …it is because you are favored and think you just win because of that,” Stoops said. “We know very clearly as coaches that if you don’t play well, you lose. You have to play winning football and we didn’t.”
Running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye — perhaps UK’s most consistent offensive player this season — said the Cats have to “go back to the drawing board” again.
“We just can’t beat ourselves,” Sumo-Karngbaye said. “You have to keep your emotions intact. It showed tonight and we can’t point the finger at anybody but ourselves, Our true colors are about to show after this week, so whatever happens behind the scenes when adversity hits, that’s when your true character and your true colors come out.”
Kentucky plays at Florida Saturday night and redshirt freshman running back Jamarion Wilcox says enough is enough.
“I don’t want to keep repeating losing. I’m not used to that, I am not from that, and I am not trying to get used to it,” Wilcox said. “We have to make some changes, not try. We’ve got to make some changes, I’m not used to this feeling, and I don’t like this feeling.”
Coach Kenny Brooks is having a different type problem with his Kentucky women’s basketball team — his players are not “wild” enough.
“They’re a little bit too introverted for my liking. It’s kind of crazy because you don’t really want wild, wild people, but out there on the court I want them to be a little bit wilder,” Brooks said. “They are great kids. They work very hard, and they’re pleasers.
“Attitudes, they have good attitudes, they work really hard, and they just want to please. They want to please each other. They want to please the coaching staff.”
So what is Brooks’ definition of wild?
“I think we have such polite kids. One of them will make a tremendous move and they’ll get fouled and they look at the other one and they’ll kind of look at them and it’s almost like, ‘Pardon me, excuse me,’ when I want them to say, ‘and one,’ or just a little bit of a, ‘Hey, you can’t guard me,’ in a very nice way,” the UK coach said.
“We’re never going to show up our opponent, but we want them to know a little bit that we’re pretty good. But they’re coming around. We haven’t had any drills where we’re practicing trash talking yet, but we’re just trying to get them to show their personalities a little bit more. It’s been a lot of fun with that.”
The one player who will talk trash is All-American point guard Georgia Amoore who says there is “always availability to talk more trash” and agrees that her teammates are too nice.
“I think it’s just a matter of getting the words out of the mouth because I know they (teammates) have the thoughts. It’s just you got to remove the filter and talk trash.”
She joked that her best trash talk is “a lot of cussing” that she mainly does in the heat of the moment. But often her best trash talking comes after a teammate makes a play.
“I’m like, ‘They can’t guard you.’ I’m talking to their defender while they’re defending them. Nothing crazy, but if the ball is in my hand, usually I’m talking.”
Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione recently explained to Inside Pitch Magazine’s Adam Revelette that he had to learn “God has blessed our staff with legitimate talents” and he had to learn to let those coaches use those gifts.
“Now, if I see that something’s off track, I’ll nudge the boat a different direction, but I just keep that bird’s-eye view of what’s going on so our coaches can do what they love,” Mingione said. “I believe that God has also blessed me with the gift of encouragement, so being back in that third base box and getting back into the fight with the players has allowed me to lift them up and let their own lights shine.”
Revelette wondered if Mingione did not occasionally feel like ripping into a player.
“Some of the best advice to follow as a coach is ‘do not forget what it’s like to be a player.’ I try to remind myself of that every day,” Mingione said in the interview. “The amount of pressure and stress and everything else the guys feel here is far greater than I believe that we could ever realize as a coach.
“When you think about social media and the new draft process and families back home and NIL and the portal and the access and the visibility … Everything is being recorded and it’s archived forever. Everything. Of course, I want to lay into a player at times and I get so mad sometimes, but I try my best to show our players the respect they deserve, the respect they have earned.”
Mingione revealed he could handle aggressive mistakes but not mistakes when players are timid or scared.
“So there are times where I have to bite my tongue and just hold back, and I don’t always hold it all back,” the UK coach said. “But in this day and age, most players are aware of what the standard is, so when they don’t meet it, they already know.”
The last time freshman Trent Noah had been on the Rupp Arena court before Big Blue Madness was when Harlan County lost to Lyon County and current UK teammate Travis Perry in the state tournament championship game.
Noah called the state tourney experience “good times” and what a “fun game we got to experience together” in the state title game.
“The thing that’s really fun is whenever we’re in practice and he hits a 3 and it goes on our side of the scoreboard, I think that’s the biggest thing,” Noah said. “But no, he’s a great human, great basketball player.
“I just get to learn so much from being around him every day, being able to live together, just getting to see his work ethic and the way he goes about things. It just makes me a better person and player.”
Perry edged Noah in the 3-point contest at Big Blue Madness.
Quote of the Week: “Pressure can bust pipes or make diamonds. It’s what you want to do with it,” point guard Georgia Amoore on the pressure of leading coach Kenny Brooks’ first UK team.
Quote of the Week 2: “I’ve grown up in church and I just feel like I have God on my side. It just makes it easier with what I’m doing right now. So I’m just thankful for that and I get to just let him take control,” UK freshman guard Trent Noah on the role faith plays in his life.
Quote of the Week 3: “The landscape in our league is nothing new to us. I don’t think anybody wants to hear the ‘poor me’ about us coaches. I don’t think anyone is interested in that and we are not worried about that. We know how difficult it is in this league. It is ridiculous how hard it is. I guess nothing surprises us anymore,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops on parity in college football even with NIL and the transfer portal.