What impact can an injured Kerr Kriisa have on Kentucky basketball? ‘Heaven help us.’

Even under unfortunate circumstances, it’s clear that Mark Pope loves talking about Kerr Kriisa.

For most of this Kentucky basketball season, Pope’s opportunities to discuss the veteran point guard have been centered on the positive. The lightning-quick pace he brings to the floor. The team-first approach he’s shown while sharing the backcourt. A competitive nature that can’t be surpassed. His ebullient — some might say, eccentric — personality.

They’ve all been talking points over the past few months for Pope, who had been trying and failing to recruit Kriisa to his team for five years before he finally got him to sign on with the Wildcats, a glint in the coach’s eye and a grin on his face at pretty much any mention of the player’s name.

The talking points this week have been more somber, but the smiles have still been quick to form.

UK announced Sunday — less than 24 hours after Kriisa fell to the floor, injured during the 90-89 victory over Gonzaga — that the point guard would be sidelined indefinitely and forced to undergo foot surgery.

Following the Wildcats’ 78-67 win over Colgate on Wednesday night, Pope confirmed that Kriisa had already had his surgery and put an approximate timetable for return at six weeks. A few minutes later — sitting out on the Rupp Arena court for his postgame radio show — Pope started to talk about Kriisa’s status, pausing to think over whether he should share an anecdote.

“I probably shouldn’t say this,” Pope said.

He stayed silent for a few seconds, then told the brief story. Pope said Kriisa had FaceTimed him “the second he woke up” from surgery earlier in the week.

“He fully acknowledged that he was high as a kite,” Pope said. “And he was going down a laundry list of all the people that he loved so much.”

Kriisa’s coach and his fellow Cats were no doubt on that list.

The 23-year-old point guard from Estonia played three seasons at Arizona and one at West Virginia before transferring to Kentucky in the spring. He’s spoken since about finding a second family in Lexington, and his new teammates have talked about the positive energy he brought to the program before the basketballs even started bouncing in summer practice.

Don’t expect that energy to wane just because Kriisa will be relegated to the sidelines.

“I feel like — I don’t feel actually; I know — that his impact is going to be the same,” veteran guard Koby Brea said after Wednesday’s game. “Just because he brings that good, positive energy. And he’s just really hype. You know what I mean? Sometimes that’s what a team needs. Like, it would have been great to have him here today, but we understand the situation and everything. And we know that even though he’s not on the court with us, he’s still gonna find a way to make his presence felt.”

Kriisa wasn’t able to make it to Rupp for the victory over Colgate as he dealt with the immediate aftermath of surgery, but he’s expected to be a mainstay on the UK bench in the weeks ahead. He’ll still be around the Cats in practices and in the locker room. He’ll still share meals and other off-the-court activities with his teammates.

All opportunities for Kriisa to bring a little more energy to the situation.

“He definitely will be,” said senior forward Ansley Almonor. “You know, he’s a great teammate. He’s a great leader. He’s just a great guy. He’s definitely gonna bring his energy, his charisma to the sideline. It’s gonna definitely help us in games, for sure.”

Filling in for Kerr Kriisa

Kriisa’s stats don’t jump off the page, but he will certainly be missed on the court these next several weeks. He’s averaging 4.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 17.3 minutes per game — all career-lows, since he emerged as Arizona’s starting point guard as a sophomore — but his impact often comes in ways not seen on the stat sheet.

He dives on the floor for loose balls. He puts his body on the line to draw offensive fouls. And when he comes out on the right side of such a play, his energy explodes — smacking the floor, shaking his fists or imploring a home crowd to get even louder. He can also talk trash at an epic rate, getting under the skin of opposing players and fans.

“We’re going to miss him a lot. He brings a lot of energy,” Almonor said. “The pace he brings when he comes on the court — just the vibe he brings — is just great. So we’re definitely gonna miss him. We’re wishing him a speedy recovery, for sure.”

Kriisa also has the ability to be one of the most electric offensive players in all of college basketball.

Starting for the first time as a Wildcat — in place of the injured Lamont Butler — against Gonzaga, he helped engineer the beginning of UK’s second-half comeback, dishing out a couple of early assists to get the energy flowing and making hustle plays to keep his team in it.

At the time Kriisa was injured, Kentucky had cut Gonzaga’s 16-point halftime lead to four.

In the moments after breaking his foot, Kriisa got back on defense and jumped in the air to contest a layup. He later limped off the court and disappeared to the UK locker room, but Kriisa returned to see his Cats prevail in overtime, celebrating with the team in obvious pain.

Before the game, Kriisa, known for his colorful use of the English language, delivered a locker-room speech that elicits widened eyes and big grins when mentioned, though few details have emerged regarding its specific content. Pope has said that much of it is not fit for retelling in forums such as this one.

“He’s a very passionate player,” Almonor said with a smirk. “You know, that game meant a lot to him. Just like it meant a lot to us. He gave us a great speech and motivated us. Like Coach said, there were some things that were said that probably shouldn’t be said again.

“But it was a great speech, for sure.”

Brea started laughing at the mere mention of Kriisa’s pregame speech. He glanced over at a UK spokesperson, as if to ask what, if anything, he could say about it.

“That’s a funny question,” he said. “I won’t say too much about it, but I’ll just say that it got everybody hyped, and it got everybody in the right place to kind of go out there and just take a little bit of pressure off of us. You know, a lot of laughter. So it’s always good to have a little laugh before you run out there. But it was very motivational, to say the least.”

All present said it was helpful, even if UK didn’t get off the greatest of starts against Gonzaga.

And there doesn’t seem to be any doubt within the program that Kriisa will find some way to help the Wildcats while he recovers from his injury. The Cats will miss him on the court, but they’ll get by until he can return.

Butler has the ability — once his ankle injury is fully healed, which should be soon — to be a 30ish-minutes-per-night guy. Jaxson Robinson has shown he can fill in the gaps at point guard. And Pope’s offense works in a way that just about anyone can bring the ball up the floor and get the action started in the halfcourt.

There might not be as many theatrics on the court itself for the time being. But anyone within earshot of the Kentucky sideline should have plenty to listen to until Kriisa is ready to play again.

“In terms of energy, Kerr might bring more energy to the team on the bench, actually,” Pope said. “He’s going to have to grow into this. … But he can be an incredibly valuable piece of this team right now. And we need him. That’s really important. He’s an important part for us.”

Pope was seemingly done talking about it there. Another question about another topic was asked, but the coach cut that off to say one more thing about his injured point guard, ending this last comment with a smile and a shake of his head.

“I mean, can you think about Kerr just sitting on the bench all game long, talking smack? Like, it’s gonna be — heaven help us.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 6:00 AM.

Ben Roberts

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-429-2848

Ben Roberts is the University of Kentucky men’s basketball beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He has previously specialized in UK basketball recruiting coverage and created and maintained the Next Cats blog. He is a Franklin County native and first joined the Herald-Leader in 2006. Support my work with a digital subscription