They’re the odd couple of Kentucky basketball. They have more in common than you’d think.
On the surface, Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa couldn’t be more different.
They both play basketball for the University of Kentucky. They’re both point guards. But on the court and off, they came to Lexington earlier this year with very dissimilar reputations.
Butler — a 22-year-old from Riverside County, California — spent the past four years at San Diego State and became known over that time as one of the best perimeter defenders in all of college basketball. He approaches the game with a business-like determination, and he talks about it in an unassuming manner.
Kriisa — a 23-year-old from the northern European country of Estonia — played three years at Arizona and last season at West Virginia, emerging as one of the most entertaining offensive players at this level of the sport. He’s flashy. He talks trash. He antagonizes opposing players and fan bases — with both his actual game and the antics that accompany it — and he’s often just a few words away from a mischievous grin and funny one-liner in interview sessions.
Almost as soon as the new UK coaching staff came together, Butler became priority number one to help fill out the roster. Kriisa had been a target of the incoming Wildcats coaches for years.
So, in a vacuum, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone who’d been paying attention when either player committed to play the 2024-25 season for Kentucky. Put together, however, the additions of Butler and Kriisa — the official announcements of their commitments coming just five days apart — was a bit of a shock to some in the college basketball community.
How exactly did Mark Pope pull this off? And, perhaps more to the point, what was he thinking?
“I’m a believer in people,” Pope said from his office in the UK practice facility, overlooking the court where Butler and Kriisa had spent the past few months figuring each other out. “I think I see so clearly what guys can be. Like, what they can become. I spend a lot of time living in that space — like what they could actually become. And then what relationships could actually be formed. And the bonds that could actually be made. And the synergy that could actually happen.
“And so I spend a lot of time seeing that in my mind, and I like it. And these guys are doing a nice job trying to take initial steps towards getting there.”
In separate interviews with the Herald-Leader over the past few weeks, Pope, Butler, Kriisa and assistant coach Jason Hart, who works with the Wildcats’ point guards, spoke of the unorthodox pairing of this UK basketball odd couple, the unexpected bond they formed early in the summer, and why all involved believe this 1-2 punch in the Kentucky backcourt could lead to a banner once their first and only season together ultimately comes to an end.
Becoming teammates
Butler and Kriisa had already met on the court before they teamed up in Lexington.
Two years ago — Nov. 22, 2022, in the Maui Invitational — Kriisa scored 21 points and dished out five assists to help lead Arizona past San Diego State 87-70. The Wildcats went on to earn a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament that season, while the Aztecs made it all the way to the national title game.
Butler said that he didn’t really like Kriisa back then. “You know, he does all the antics in the game and stuff like that. So I wasn’t really a big fan of him.”
He also acknowledged that he didn’t really know him. After the two players committed to Kentucky, they started conversing. When they arrived on campus, they started hanging out. It didn’t take long for the two point guards to click.
“I definitely knew he was a great player,” Butler said. “I didn’t know how he was gonna be, like, personality-wise and stuff like that. But he ended up being way different than I expected.”
Pope said both players were going through difficult times in their personal lives during those early days at Kentucky. They leaned on each other almost from the start.
Kriisa was good at pingpong. Butler had never really played. They competed against each other often. Then they started playing pool. Amid the casual games, they talked, got to know each other better.
“Kerr is an interesting guy, man,” Butler said, a big smile on his face. “He always makes the room laugh. He always has a great vibe, great energy about him. So we love being around him. Everybody needs a Kerr Kriisa on their team. It’s definitely an experience. We love him.”
Kriisa grinned at the mention of Butler’s name.
“I think Lamont is one of the sweetest kids,” he said. “He’s an awesome teammate.”
Kriisa knows there are often preconceptions about him due to the way he sometimes acts on the court. But he’s not surprised they clicked almost immediately. “I don’t think ever I’ve had a teammate who I didn’t really get along with.”
He added that Butler was one of the only guys on the roster — 12 new scholarship players who had never played together — that was more into his own “shell” in the very beginning, but that changed quickly.
Kriisa is known as the extrovert, but he pointed out that Butler had the confidence to write an original song about his new team, make it into a music video and then enter Rupp Arena through the crowd to the tune during Big Blue Madness introductions. A week after that, Butler engaged in a dance-off with the Wildcat mascot during the Blue-White festivities in Memorial Coliseum.
“I really like him,” Kriisa said. “He cares. He’s funny. I mean, obviously he was making songs and s---. So he’s a really good dude. And on the floor, I mean, he’s the ultimate winner and leader. Everything he does translates to winning. It’s never about him. It’s never about him getting his shots. It’s (about) everything that translates to winning. I think that’s why we get along, too, because I’m kind of the same way.
“Except the defensive part,” he added with that grin. “That’s where I’m not that, you know — I don’t have that dog that he has. But I still got some dog.”
Battles on the court
This is the way Pope hoped things would play out when he decided to pursue Butler and Kriisa for his first Kentucky roster.
“I love having those two,” he said. “It brings me a lot of peace.”
One need only watch Butler play for a few minutes to understand the kind of competitive spirit he brings to the court. Pope’s BYU teams played against San Diego State four times — once each over the past four seasons — and when Butler became available via the transfer portal last spring, Pope knew he had to do whatever necessary to get the team-first veteran on his squad.
The new Kentucky coach had also been recruiting Kriisa for five years by that point. BYU was the first school to reach out to him — back when he was a young developmental player in Europe, not even thinking then about playing college basketball in America — but Kriisa turned Pope down twice in the past and was going to do it again until he got the UK job.
So Pope knew Kriisa better than most, and that meant knowing he was more than some trash-talking stereotype.
His addition to Pope’s roster was met with whispers in some college basketball corners over whether it would be the right fit. Kriisa had started 93 of 99 career college games by that point, including two seasons as a starter for two excellent Arizona teams.
If he had to take a lesser role, how would he react?
Kriisa said the right things from the start. In his first interview session as a Wildcat, the fifth-year player referred to Butler directly as “PG1” — a sign that he figured he’d be coming off the bench for the Cats this season, and that he was OK with what the coaches had in mind.
Early in the summer practice sessions, those who watched the Wildcats behind closed doors spoke of the spirited battles between Butler and Kriisa. Months later, Pope grinned as recalled some of them.
The UK coach said that for the first several weeks of practice, whenever Butler was defending Kriisa, he would get the ball out of his hands quickly, before he had to attack Butler’s pressure.
“He was like, ‘I’m not messing with this cat!’” Pope said with a laugh. “And over time, Kerr kind of found his space, where, like, you know, ‘I can really find ways where I can come with my game and attack him.’”
Kriisa readily admits that playing against Butler day in and day out over the summer made him an even better offensive player. He joked that one of the best things about getting to play outside competition was that it would give him a break from having to play against his teammate.
Part of the reason Butler wanted to come here was to expand his own offensive game and prove he could play it at a high level. He felt Pope’s system would be the ideal fit for both objectives. At the same time, trying to figure out how to guard Kriisa could only help him grow into an even better defensive player.
“Kerr is also like a feisty, out of the box, creative, IQ defender that just is irritating beyond belief,” Pope said. “And so they’re making each other better. And, you know, Kerr is going to race around and take some insane shots. And Lamont, him honoring that, as well as being an elite gap defender, an elite catch-and-move defender, an elite smash-down defender — it’s made him stretch defensively also.”
Hart gets to work extensively with both players on a daily basis. The competition has been not only fun to watch, it’s been contagious — spreading across the other position groups.
“It looks like two dudes, two veteran basketball players that are trying to make the team better,” Hart said of the battles. “And then any competition drills we do — they are trying to win. And so when you know you have that, it creates competition everywhere.”
Hart noted that John Calipari’s tenure at UK frequently featured elite-level players at the same position. He doesn’t see that changing.
“We’re at Kentucky. That’s what Cal was doing, right? He was having pros everywhere,” Hart said. “So you don’t come here to play against somebody way beneath you. You come here to play against somebody — iron sharpens iron. That’s how you make it.
“So if one was here, another one’s here,” Hart continued, positioning his hands at different levels, “then that wouldn’t make everybody better. And so I love that. We love that. I think that’s what makes the beauty of college basketball — high-level people competing every day.”
The future at Kentucky
Chalk that competitiveness up as one more similarity these two players share.
Butler had a 100-31 record over his four seasons at San Diego State. Kriisa was 57-11 in his two full years as a starter at Arizona, and he wanted to get back to winning at a high level after an utterly disappointing time at West Virginia last season.
If doing that at UK meant accepting a backup role, so be it.
“Kerr has been great for us. Even for me, just because I have to guard him every day in practice,” Butler said. “So, you know, it’s definitely been a challenge. I feel like we’ve made each other better. He’s an excellent shooter. Can’t give him no space at all. His pace off the pick and roll — just his pace in general — he’s always moving at a fast pace, always moving around the court. He’s an excellent passer out of the pick and roll. He uses his eyes well to move guys and make passes.
“So I’ve definitely been learning a lot from his game that I want to add to mine. But I think we complement each other great. Because it’s like we’re total opposites in a way, but we both want to win, and we compete at a high level.”
Butler and other UK players have also spoken — as they’ve gotten to know Kriisa over these past few months — about the depth they’ve found beneath that wisecracking surface. And they’ve also noticed that much of Kriisa’s trash-talking is directed inward, clearly, in many cases, a means of getting himself fired up.
Back in that first group interview session with reporters during the summer, Kriisa seemed to bristle at the amount of questions he was getting concerning his trash-talking past.
“It’s just funny, because I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, for real,” he later told the Herald-Leader. “I think it’s just part of the game. I think it’s just who I am. And I don’t want to — there’s nothing to really brag about. It’s not that I take pride in it. It’s just like, once I step on the floor, it’s a competitive game, I’m a competitive person.
“So, you know, emotions — sometimes they go over. So it is what it is.”
Any concerns over Kriisa’s ability to blend into this team have been unfounded so far. In his second game as a Wildcat — the 101st of his college career — he dished out 12 assists, tying a career high, in just 21 minutes off the bench.
Three nights later, Kriisa didn’t have his best game on the national stage against Duke — 2-for-9 from the field, just the fifth time in college that he failed to record an assist — but he could often be seen chest-bumping a teammate or celebrating someone else’s big play.
After UK secured the upset victory and went through the handshake line, he ran around on the court, playing to the crowd and clowning around with the Wildcat mascot. Not long before the game, he spoke of finding a second family in Lexington and, with that, a collective willingness to sacrifice.
“I think it’s the way Coach Pope is operating — building the culture of family,” Kriisa said. “Everybody cares for each other, and we got to do it as a team. Nobody can do it by themselves-type thing. I think that has helped a lot.”
After Kriisa led Kentucky with seven assists in Friday night’s win over Jackson State — a game in which he was the only UK scholarship player not to score — Pope flashed back to that Duke game. He mentioned a point in the second half, when the Blue Devils had fought off another one of the Cats’ rally attempts and the team was walking back to the sideline for a timeout, no doubt frustrated that they’d once again been stymied.
“And Kerr’s just pushing everybody. Just shoving them, right?” Pope recalled excitedly. “He just refuses to accept — whatever the common vibe is, he’s going to be contrary to it, right? And it’s really important. And our guys receive it really well. And it just helps keep everybody kind of sharp. He’s really special. He’s got a really unique skill set and personality, and he brings a defiance and a swag and an insistence to our team.”
For the Duke game, Butler was the point guard on the court at the end. Later on in the season — and the Wildcats will have lots of big games before it ends — perhaps it’ll be Kriisa instead.
“They bring two different skill sets,” Hart said. “And to win a championship, obviously, at any level, you got to have a team with different pieces. Because the game may call for something different. And so Kerr and Lamont — both veteran guys, been in college — I think they came here to really try to put their talents together to try to win a championship.
“Kerr has been great. He’s the outgoing one. He’s the one that gives us the energy with his spirit and his vocals. So that’s a great thing for us. We got a change-up. And I’ve been enjoying working with him. He brings energy to our workouts, and so with his experience and his gamesmanship — he plays with a lot of confidence, swag — we need it.”
Pope couldn’t help but grin again as he looked forward to the possibilities.
“If we do this right, that relationship is going to get highlighted a lot more,” he said. “Because, you’re right. They’re not the two guys that you would think roll exactly the same way. But they’re incredibly beautiful complements to each other. It’s pretty cool.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
