Kerr Kriisa (born 2 January 2001) is an Estonian college basketball player for the Cincinnati Bearcats. He previously played for the Arizona Wildcats, the West Virginia Mountaineers, and the Kentucky Wildcats. Listed at and , he plays the point guard position. A native of Tartu, he has competed with Estonian junior national teams on multiple occasions.
Early career
2016–2018: Early years
Kriisa played for the youth teams of his hometown club
BC Tartu since he was 12 years old and debuted with Tartu Ülikool in the 2016–17 KML season at the age of 15. In September 2017 he signed with
Brose Bamberg and started playing in their affiliate team Baunach Young Pikes.
His stint in
Germany was cut short due to
periostitis and he returned to Estonia for treatment.
2018–2020: Žalgiris
In August 2018, he signed with Žalgiris.
In his first year with the
Kaunas team Kriisa played on the Lithuanian second league (NKL) team Žalgiris-2 and also for the youth team in the Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament. He was awarded with the MVP and All-Tournament Team honours at the Kaunas Qualifying Tournament. Kriisa averaged 17.3 points, 4.7 assists and 2.7 rebounds over 7 games in the 2018–19 season of Next Generation Tournament.
Kriisa made his EuroLeague debut for Žalgiris on 25 October 2019 and scored his first point from a free throw as Žalgiris defeated ASVEL Basket 70–56 in the Regular Season Round 4 game.
College career
2020–2023: Arizona Wildcats
On April 18, 2020, Kriisa committed to play college basketball in the United States for Arizona. Analysts considered him to be the best European recruit considering playing at the collegiate level.
After head coach
Sean Miller was fired, he entered the NCAA transfer portal while leaving the option of returning to Arizona open. New head coach
Tommy Lloyd was able to recruit him back to Arizona for his sophomore season.
As a junior, Kriisa averaged 9.9 points and 5.1 assists per game. Following the 2022–23 season, Kriisa announced that he would enter the transfer portal again.
2023–24: West Virginia Mountaineers
Kriisa announced on April 5, 2023 that he intended to transfer to West Virginia.
After head coach
Bob Huggins resigned following a DUI arrest, Kriisa initially announced on June 23 he was reentering the transfer portal. NCAA rules allow any student-athlete to enter the portal within 30 days after a head coaching change.
Two days later, after top Huggins assistant
Josh Eilert was named interim head coach for the 2023–24 season, Kriisa left the portal and announced he would stay at West Virginia.
After drawing an NCAA suspension for the first nine games of the 2023–24 season, Kriisa returned to start the rest of the Mountaineers' games, averaging 11.0 points and 4.7 assists and also leading the team in three-pointers. With a fifth year of college eligibility due to the NCAA granting such to all basketball players active in the COVID-impacted 2020–21 season, Kriisa entered the transfer portal again at the end of the 2023–24 season,
National team career
Kriisa has represented the Estonia national U-16 team at the 2016 and 2017 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championships and the Estonia national U-18 team at the 2019 FIBA Europe Under-18 Division B Championship.
Career statistics
EuroLeague
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2019–20
| style="text-align:left;"| Žalgiris
| 1 || 0 || 2.1 || .000 || .000 || .500 || .0 || .0 || .0 || .0 || 1.0 || .0
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 1 || 0 || 2.1 || .000 || .000 || .500 || .0 || .0 || .0 || .0 || 1.0 || .0
College
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2020–21
| style="text-align:left;"| Arizona
| 8 || 5 || 22.9 || .333 || .368 ||
1.000 || .5 || 2.4 || .4 || .0 || 5.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2021–22
| style="text-align:left;"| Arizona
| 33 || 31 || 29.6 || .348 || .336 || .816 ||
2.5 || 4.7 || .6 || .1 || 9.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2022–23
| style="text-align:left;"| Arizona
|
35 ||
34 || 31.1 || .372 || .366 || .767 || 2.4 ||
5.1 || .6 || .0 || 9.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2023–24
| style="text-align:left;"| West Virginia
| 23 || 23 ||
33.5 ||
.429 ||
.424 || .775 ||
2.5 || 4.7 ||
.8 || .0 ||
11.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2024–25
| style="text-align:left;"| Kentucky
| 9 || 1 || 17.3 || .279 || .263 || .857 || 2.4 || 3.8 || .4 ||
.2 || 4.4
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 108 || 94 || 29.4 || .370 || .362 || .791 || 2.3 || 4.6 || .6 || .1 || 9.3
Personal life
Kerr is the son of former professional basketball player
Valmo Kriisa.
He is named after
Steve Kerr, who also played basketball at the University of Arizona.
External links
