Kerr Kriisa is the first UK basketball player to make a move. He’s in the transfer portal
Kerr Kriisa’s time as a Kentucky Wildcat was brief.
As expected, Kriisa entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal Monday morning, the first player from the 2024-25 UK men’s basketball roster to make a move following the team’s loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament on Friday night.
This decision has been expected for weeks.
Kriisa came to Lexington around this time last year billed as an electric offensive player who seemed a perfect fit for Mark Pope’s fast and free offensive system.
Pope and longtime assistant Cody Fueger, who followed the head coach to UK last spring, were the first college coaches to recruit Kriisa — back when he was a teenage recruit in Europe — but they couldn’t get a commitment from him at BYU.
That changed when Pope got the Kentucky job, and Kriisa began the 2024-25 season as the backup to starting point guard Lamont Butler, expected to be an offensive spark plug off the bench for the Wildcats.
The 24-year-old point guard from Estonia never really got a chance to get going, however. He suffered a foot injury in Kentucky’s win over Gonzaga on Dec. 7 and didn’t return to the court after that.
Pope announced toward the end of the regular season that Kriisa would be unable to return, and the UK coach declined to discuss his status beyond the 2024-25 season amid speculation that the player would depart the program this spring.
Kriisa spoke with reporters in the UK locker room before the team’s NCAA Tournament opener against Troy, but — while he talked in detail about his foot injury — he did not offer any in-depth comment on what he would do when the season was finished. At that point, it was presumed in college basketball circles that Kriisa would be leaving Kentucky.
While he has entered the transfer portal, Kriisa could still opt to return to Europe and begin his professional career in the coming months. He will turn 25 years old in January.
Kriisa posted a statement on social media Monday morning.
“To Coach Pope and the UK coaching staff — it has been an absolute dream to play for the University of Kentucky. Thank you for your continued support. To my teammates — I am so thankful for the relationships we’ve formed during my time at Kentucky, and I will keep those friendships for a lifetime. To BBN — your unending support of me and my team has been amazing. Playing at Rupp Arena in front of huge crowds has been a dream come true.
“I will always cherish my time in the Bluegrass State, and I wish Kentucky basketball all the best in the future.”
This was supposed to be Kriisa’s final season of college basketball after playing three years at Arizona and one at West Virginia, but he is expected to be eligible for a medical redshirt due to his lost time at Kentucky, where he played only nine nine games.
Kriisa averaged 4.4 points and 3.8 assists in 17.3 minutes per game.
What’s next for Kentucky?
The Wildcats will also lose Butler, their starting point guard, as well as Jaxson Robinson, who filled in as the de facto point guard at various times of the season when both Butler and Kriisa were sidelined with injuries. Both of those players have exhausted their NCAA eligibility.
Freshmen guards Collin Chandler and Travis Perry emerged as backup lead guard options for Pope’s team down the stretch, and Perry, last year’s Kentucky Mr. Basketball, actually started four games for the Wildcats this past season.
Both of those players are expected to be back as sophomores on the 2025-26 roster, though neither has made an official announcement.
Kentucky will also be bringing in two talented combo guards from the 2025 high school recruiting class: Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis, who are both viewed as instant-impact players for the Wildcats’ backcourt next season.
In addition to those recruits, Pope will be looking for a lead guard who can bring a similar defensive intensity to the court as Butler did this past season. Landing a point guard with those attributes will be arguably the Kentucky coaching staff’s No. 1 priority in the transfer portal this spring, and the Cats have already been linked to several possible additions for next season.
UK received its first transfer commitment on the morning of the Tennessee game, getting 6-foot-8 wing Kam Williams — a long, athletic 3-point threat from Tulane — to fill the first of what will be many available spots on the 2025-26 roster.
This story was originally published March 31, 2025 at 10:29 AM.
