Kerr Kriisa talks for first time about possibility of a return to Kentucky for next season
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Kentucky guard Kerr Kriisa held an interview session with reporters for the first time in more than three months Thursday afternoon.
Kriisa, sidelined since Dec. 7 — the date he suffered a foot injury in the Wildcats’ win over Gonzaga in Seattle — underwent surgery for that ailment in the immediate aftermath of that game. He has since been ruled out for the remainder of the 2024-25 season.
The 24-year-old college basketball veteran from Estonia talked for the first time Thursday about that injury, his attempts to make it back to the court and his plans beyond this season. He spoke from UK’s open locker room, ahead of the team’s game against Troy in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night.
Kriisa was non-committal on his basketball future, but he gave no indications that he would be returning to the Wildcats for the 2025-26 season.
“All the focus is really on getting through tomorrow, getting through Sunday. Hopefully, day by day, keep this season going,” he said. “And you know, that’s where my head is at.”
When asked a specific follow-up question regarding whether a return to Kentucky for next season was on the table, Kriisa again showed no signs that he would be back.
“Like I just said, my focus is 100% this year,” he said. “I don’t know nothing about next year. I don’t even know if I’ll come back to college. I don’t know anything. All I know is that my foot wasn’t good enough to play and risk (it). So, yeah, I’ll focus on that stuff later.”
Mark Pope has also been asked several times in the past few weeks — both in media sessions and via questions on his weekly radio show — about Kriisa’s status beyond this season, and the Kentucky head coach has always kept the focus on the player’s attempts to get healthy, declining to talk about the possibility that he might return to Lexington.
As of now, Kriisa is not expected to be part of Kentucky’s 2025-26 roster.
The 6-foot-3 point guard did talk Thursday about the injury that ultimately ended his first season with the Wildcats and the process of attempting a comeback.
“They’ve been definitely difficult,” Kriisa said of the past three months. “They’ve been challenging, because I’ve never had a surgery before. I never had, like, that long of an injury. The most I’ve sat out is maybe a week or a couple weeks. Definitely very challenging. But I think I learned a lot about myself and tried to stay positive. …
“I was really scared of surgery. I’m not gonna lie, because I’ve never had one. I’ve never been under (anesthesia). So it was pretty nerve-racking.”
Kerr Kriisa’s time at Kentucky
When Kriisa was first injured, the announcement from UK indicated that it would not be a season-ending situation. Pope reiterated after the surgery was performed that he expected Kriisa to be back with the Wildcats later in the season.
As the weeks passed, however, it looked less and less likely that he would be returning to the court.
“Honestly, it was complicated,” Kriisa said. “Because obviously I heard that I had that chance. I wanted to come back. That was the number one goal for me, especially with these guys. And I think I’ve said it before, but, you know, I really wanted to be here with this group of guys. So that was the first thing for me.
“But when I started doing rehab, I didn’t want to — when I saw that it wasn’t probably going to be happening — then I didn’t want to risk it. Meaning I wanted to be 100% healthy coming back. I didn’t want to be 80%. I didn’t want to be 70%.”
At that point, Kriisa said he basically didn’t think he would be able to return in a capacity that would have been acceptable to his standards on the court. Pope confirmed a few weeks ago that he would not be back with the Cats this season.
“I started feeling it a little bit more and … ‘This is something I don’t want to play with,’” Kriisa said of his mindset amid the recovery. “This is a surgery. This is not an ankle injury that you, you know, twisted, then you’ll be back in a week or two. … If it’s a surgery, it’s something that I don’t want to mess with. And when I felt very uncomfortable and painful, I kind of had to take a step back and then revisit the situation and all that. So, yeah, this is something I didn’t want to play with.”
Kriisa will be eligible for a redshirt season, so he could return to college basketball for one more run. He could also return home to Europe and start his pro career. Kriisa played parts of three seasons with Arizona, transferred to West Virginia for last season and then this season at Kentucky was supposed to be his final year in college.
Pope and his longtime assistant coach Cody Fueger were the first to recruit Kriisa to America — back when he was a pro development player in Europe — but they lost out on him twice in previous recruitments, before Pope got the UK job last spring. All involved were looking forward to their first season together, but the injury obviously derailed those high hopes early on.
Kentucky has open roster spots for next season — six of the current Cats have exhausted their eligibility, including starting point guard Lamont Butler — and Pope is expected to pursue another point guard as a top priority in the transfer portal. But UK is almost certainly going to be looking first for a player who can come close to matching Butler’s ability on the defensive end.
Kriisa is an energetic defender, but offense has been his calling card. Kentucky is also bringing in two lead guards from the high school ranks — Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis, a pair of high-profile recruits — and Pope will be pursuing a defensive-minded veteran to complement those freshmen. Collin Chandler and Travis Perry — two freshman guards on this UK team — could also be back with the Cats for their sophomore seasons.
Though he was the starting point guard for two highly regarded Arizona teams, Kriisa played injured in both of his NCAA Tournament appearances with that program. His West Virginia squad had a losing record last season, and he was looking forward to a healthy postseason run with the Cats this year.
“I’ve never had a healthy March Madness,” he said Thursday. “My sophomore year, in the Pac-12 freakin’ tournament, like the last 10 seconds, I had a very bad ankle injury. And then I had to push it through, because I really wanted to play March Madness. And then the next year, again, the Pac-12 Tournament, I pop my shoulder out and play with a half shoulder. So, you know, I really wanted to be 100% — 120% in March Madness.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 5:55 PM.
