Kerr Kriisa's confidence quickly rising, even if last-second shot didn't fall vs. Ducks

In the last split-second of only his fourth college game Saturday, Arizona’s Kerr Kriisa had the 200-pound body of Oregon’s LJ Figueroa flying over one shoulder and the weight of the Ducks’ winning streak over the Wildcats sitting on the other.

Eh, he’s dealt with bigger things before.

Kriisa missed his potential game-winning 3, with Figueroa’s lunge forcing him to pump-fake and put up a hasty and errant shot at the buzzer, giving Oregon a 63-61 win that was the Ducks’ sixth straight over the Wildcats.

But video evidence, and Kriisa’s personal basketball history, suggested the miss had a lot more to do with Figueroa’s frame than any sort of freshman jitters.

So Arizona hasn’t beaten Oregon since January 2018?

Estonia hadn’t beaten Lithuania since 1991 … until Kriisa scored 26 points while hitting 8 of 12 3s to help Estonia beat Lithuania in a Baltic Way Cup game last July.

So Figueroa was hurdling toward Kriisa at the last moment Saturday, deftly avoiding a foul while managing to provide an aerial distraction?

During a Eurobasket qualifying game last November, the coach of the Russian national team noted that “sometimes we went at (Kriisa) with two men,” including 33-year-old standout Yevgeny Baburin.

“His main task was to deal with the Estonian leader,” Russia coach Sergei Bazarevich said.

Kriisa was 0 for 4 from 3 against Russia that day and he didn’t hit a game-winner on Saturday, when he clearly wasn’t happy.

“Of course, it’s hard because you start looking at all the game, and all the little details, little mistakes we did and basically this cost us the game,” Kriisa said. “One-possession games are always the worst.”

But there’s also no doubt Kriisa has some perspective.

Kriisa has only played in four college games since becoming eligible on Feb. 4 and three of them have been losses, the last two by a total of just five points.

It could be worse. Kriisa didn’t have the ball in his hands at all for the Wildcats’ first 17 games, handcuffed by the NCAA clearinghouse because of arrangements that had been made for him to play for a Lithuanian club.

“Now it’s already better because I know I have a chance to play,” Kriisa said. “Before it was really mentally tough because you practice, you work hard every day, you’re just like everybody else — but then the game day comes and you just have to hype everybody up because I can’t step myself on the court.

“So it was mentally a really tough challenge for me but I don’t really look back anymore because the time has come when I can play.”

Because his postgame interview Saturday was the first time UA has made him available for comment since Nov. 5, there were naturally questions about his long layoff and chance to get back on the floor but Kriisa sidestepped them somewhat.

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“I think when the team loses I don’t have to talk about myself,” Kriisa said. “It doesn’t matter how I felt or my performance. We lost by two points and it is what it is.”

However, Kriisa said he’s become more confident throughout his first four games, and his offensive stats reflect that: He was 0 for 2 in his first game at Utah, made just 1 of 4 3-pointers at Colorado on Feb. 6 and scored eight on 2-for-7 shooting against Oregon State last Thursday before scoring 12 while hitting 4 of 9 3-pointers on Saturday.

Meanwhile, UA coach Sean Miller has already called Kriisa the Wildcats’ best screener, saying his feel for screens was the reason he was in the game late Saturday. Kriisa was told first to look for Azuolas Tubelis if a quick tip-in was available or pop for a 3 if not.

The Lithuanian forward wasn’t open, but chances are good that Kriisa would have found him if he was.

Of Kriisa’s five assists Saturday, four were to his fellow Baltic teammate.

“We know each other for a very long time,” Kriisa said, sitting next to Tubelis at the postgame interview podium.

“Four years?” Tubelis asked.

“No. Longer,” Kriisa said. “Longer for sure. We started already playing all this, U14, U12, when we were really little we had games against each other, and then the national team and camps.

“So we’ve known each other for a long time. He’s a really good friend and an even better player. I also agree that our (chemistry) is good. He sees the floor. He has really good IQ. He can pass the ball for a big man really good. He’s a tough player.”

So is Kriisa, Miller said. During the Utah and Colorado trip, Miller praised Kriisa’s toughness, perhaps no better displayed than when he jumped in front of one of the Pac-12’s best players, Buffs point guard McKinley Wright, and was barreled over in what was called a charge against Wright.

Miller said taking that charge was “amazing,” noting that the Wildcats had only taken 12 charges all season through the Colorado game, with Kriisa’s playing time justified by screens and defense even if he’s not hitting 3s.

“Usually, you don’t think about a guard setting a screen but several of his screens just led to easy baskets,” Miller said last week of the Utah and Colorado games. “He takes a lot of pride in what he does. He’s a very smart player, and he’s a very physical player …

“If we would have won the game against Colorado, I think (the Wright charge) would have been one of the signature plays of the game. That could have propelled us to a victory.”

But when asked Saturday about the intensity he plays with, Kriisa mostly shrugged.

“That’s the way I play,” Kriisa said. “I’ve been playing like this all my life. If it’s contagious, that’s good. I like that my team is energized and they actually want to play. I think we’re a tough team and a really good team.”

Maybe even more so in the future.

“What I’d also like to add here is that I really like the way we play,” Kriisa said. “I really like our offense. I like our defense and considering that we don’t have two really good players who are injured (Jemarl Baker and Ira Lee) I believe we can make really good damage next year.

“So I’m really excited for upcoming years and to finish this year strong.”