One more year? Kerr Kriisa won’t be part of Senior Night and could return to Kentucky
Injured Kentucky point guard Kerr Kriisa will not participate in the team’s Senior Night festivities Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, a move that’s sure to increase speculation that he will return to college basketball for one more season.
UK head coach Mark Pope announced on his weekly radio show Monday night that Kriisa will have one more year of eligibility remaining and would not take part in the Senior Night ceremony, which he said would be reserved for the players that have exhausted all of their college eligibility.
“We walked into the season thinking Kerr was going to exhaust his eligibility this year, but he didn’t,” Pope said. “He’s got another year left, which is so fantastic for all of us, right?”
Pope did not say anything else about Kriisa’s future plans on Monday’s show.
Kentucky will host LSU at 7 p.m. EST Tuesday in the final home game of the 2024-25 season.
Kriisa, who transferred to Kentucky from West Virginia last spring, has not played for the Wildcats since Dec. 7, when he suffered a fractured foot during the Wildcats’ victory against Gonzaga in Seattle.
UK announced the following day that Kriisa would undergo surgery for his injury, but the team’s statement at the time explicitly said that it was not expected to be a season-ending setback. Pope confirmed three days later that the surgery had already been performed on Kriisa and made clear that he also expected him to return at some point later in the season.
As the weeks progressed, Pope said the recovery process was going more slowly than expected, casting doubt more recently that Kriisa would be able to play again this season.
Pope acknowledged last month that Kriisa might not return to the court during the 2024-25 campaign. If Kriisa can’t come back — and Pope’s comments Monday night implied he won’t play again this season — he would meet the basic requirements for a medical redshirt, which, under NCAA rules, can be granted to a player who has played in fewer than 30% of his team’s games and did not compete after the midway point of the season.
Kriisa would still have to apply to receive that extra year of eligibility, however, and the Herald-Leader was told last week that the process for that had not yet been completed. It also remains unclear whether Kriisa would even return to college basketball for another season. No final decision on his future beyond this season has been made.
Kentucky already has commitments from highly touted backcourt recruits Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis, who are likely to play on-ball roles for the Wildcats as freshmen next season. Collin Chandler and Travis Perry have both seen lead guard opportunities as freshmen this season. UK is also expected to pursue a veteran, defense-first point guard in the transfer portal.
Kriisa is an energetic defender, but he’s best known for his offensive talents.
He played three years at Arizona — missing most of his freshman season due to NCAA eligibility issues — before transferring to West Virginia and then ending up at Kentucky for his fifth year of college basketball.
Kriisa, who turned 24 years old in January, is not projected as an NBA draft pick — he wasn’t listed in the top 100 rankings from ESPN or The Athletic when both outlets updated their lists last week — but he would have immediate opportunities to play professionally overseas.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound guard is from Estonia and had already played for professional teams in Europe before moving to the United States and pursuing a career in college basketball.
Kriisa was expected to provide a spark — especially offensively — for the Wildcats off the bench this season, with his fast-paced style appearing to be a perfect fit for Pope’s scoring approach. He averaged 4.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 17.3 minutes over nine games before suffering his foot injury.
Pope announced after Saturday’s loss to No. 1 Auburn that Jaxson Robinson would miss the rest of the season due to a wrist injury suffered in practice last month. That will end the college career of Robinson, another fifth-year player who was averaging 13.0 points — second on Kentucky’s team — in 24 games this season.
Kriisa and Robinson were Pope’s top point guard options behind starter Lamont Butler, who has missed eight games this season due to injury and continues to play through a left shoulder ailment. Butler has been wearing a heavy brace on his shoulder during games.
“The best thing about tonight was Lamont got through the game,” Pope said after the loss to Auburn. “Like, that’s the best thing. And every game, every play he gets to, is better. And he got beat up on some screens, and he still made it out alive. And so I thought he was probably our brightest spot tonight, in terms of the ability to get down and get to two feet and make plays and have a little bit of defensive presence. And he was probably the best thing for us.”
Butler and Robinson will be joined by senior teammates Ansley Almonor, Koby Brea, Andrew Carr and Amari Williams for the Senior Night ceremony on Tuesday night, while Kriisa watches from the sidelines.
UK is in its final week of the regular season, with the home finale against LSU followed by a road trip to Missouri on Saturday afternoon. Butler’s health will obviously continue to be monitored during that stretch, with the SEC Tournament coming up next week.
“Like I said, every play he gets through is really positive, because he’s on his way back,” Pope said. “He’s got two more games to really get to the elite level that he’s played at for most of the season. And so I’m really happy he’s making progress.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 6:19 PM.
