BOULDER, Colo. — The swaggy, kiss-blowing, finger-wagging point guard of the nation’s second-ranked team, Kerr Kriisa knows what you might think of him. Maybe some good things, maybe some not so good.
And he definitely knows what fans in visiting arenas might think of him. That’s almost always not so good.
But Kriisa also knows how to let it all slide off his back, and keep going. Keep shooting, keep passing, keep running the show.
Otherwise, the Estonian sophomore probably would never have a night like he did Thursday at Utah, when he hit seven 3-pointers en route to a triple-double that helped the Wildcats beat the Utes 97-77.
“If I would listen to everybody, I would probably would be in a mental hospital,” Kriisa said. “I wouldn’t be able to play basketball, and that’s it.”
So after shooting a combined 3 for 19 from 3-point range in two games against UCLA, then making only seven of the 21 3-pointers he attempted over the previous three games, Kriisa put on a show Thursday that moved the Wildcats to a brink of a Pac-12 title in their game at Colorado on Saturday.
With a win over the Buffaloes, the Wildcats can clinch a share of the Pac-12 regular-season title. They can clinch it outright if they win and second-place USC loses at Oregon.
The Wildcats almost clinched a share of the title Thursday, but USC hung on to beat Oregon State in double-overtime. Several UA staffers stood in a Huntsman Center corridor while following that late-night nail-biter on their phones.
“It’s obvious that we want to win the conference — there’s 100% no doubt about it,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said, as he was told USC and OSU were in double OT. “But we’re still focused on the day-to-day approach to getting better.”
Shortly after Lloyd’s postgame interview ended, the Trojans hung on for a 94-91 win. That meant the Wildcats would instead have to try to sew the league title up at the CU Events Center, where history suggests doing that sort of thing is not so easily done.
UA is just 2-6 there since the Buffs joined the Pac-12 in 2011-12.
But the two wins Arizona did pull off in Boulder were Arizona’s Elite Eight teams of 2013-14 and 2014-15 — and the Wildcats just might have that sort of team this season. Arizona is sitting on a projected No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed and has won nine straight games, thanks in part to Kriisa’s tone-setting, playmaking, and, maybe now more than ever, confidence.
“He’s got a little edge to him,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said Friday, after the Buffaloes worked out at their CU Events Center practice gym. “To be his size and to play at the level he’s playing at, you have to have a little bit of spunk and toughness.”
On Thursday, Kriisa added plenty of skill to that mix. He hit seven 3-pointers, including a buzzer-beating, near-halfcourt shot before halftime, then spent the second half working frantically toward what became the UA’s first triple-double since Andre Iguodala did it three times as a sophomore in 2003-04.
“I just got my rhythm going and it’s pretty hard to describe the feeling,” Kriisa said. “But when the shot goes in, you usually feel good. I feel like I really needed it for my confidence, too. It was really good confidence boost for upcoming games.”
Arizona guard Kerr Kriisa reaches for a loose ball in the second half of Thursday night's win.
The Wildcats could feel it, too. Forward Azuolas Tubelis, who finished with a game-high 23 points and five rebounds, said simply that “we saw that it’s basically his game.” Tubelis was only too happy to see Kriisa take the final shot of the first half, giving UA a 53-33 halftime lead.
After taking an inbounds pass with five seconds left in the first half, Kriisa took a quick look at Tubelis as he raced upcourt, then decided to fire off a shot just as he stepped over the midcourt line.
“I saw ‘Zu was open and I was looking at ‘Zu, but he didn’t even want the ball,” Kriisa said. “He just showed with the little hand, like ‘Shoot it.’”
Tubelis said he wanted the ball at first, but realized only 4 seconds were left and quickly changed his mind.
“Kerr looked at me in the eye and then he looked at the shot clock, and he decided to shoot,” Tubelis said, chuckling at the memory. “I’m happy he decided to shoot it.”
Kriisa didn’t hit either of his two shot attempts in the second half but instead picked up seven rebounds and eight assists to finish with a triple-double of 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
For that, it was his teammates and Lloyd who could take a little credit. Kriisa had no problem giving it to them.
“Coming out (after halftime), I knew right away I was going to play for my teammates,” Kriisa said. “I had my 21 — I don’t even need 21, but I had it — but I was thinking about my teammates and that (Utah) was gonna be more on me. I had open looks (to pass to) ‘Zu, ‘C-Lo’ (Christian Koloko), Justin (Kier) for 3, so that really helped me out.”
Kier’s 3 gave Kriisa his 10th assist, and the Wildcats a 93-65 lead with 4:13 left.
Then Lloyd did his part. He had taken Kriisa out for what appeared to be the last time with 3:02 left, when the 6-foot-3 guard had 21 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.
Lloyd said Kriisa “gave me a look with those puppy dog eyes,” and the coach considered the implications at stake. He put Kriisa back in about a minute later.
“Totally not my style,” Lloyd said. “That’s totally not my style. But I thought, ‘OK. Kerr Kriisa is probably never gonna be in this position again in his career to have nine rebounds’ and he just needed one rebound for a triple-double.
“So I was like, ‘I’ll give him a shot.’”
Less than a minute after that, Krissa picked up the ball after teammate Adama Bal blocked Utah’s Jaxon Brenchley, giving him rebound No. 10 and a bit of Arizona history.
On Saturday, Kriisa has another chance to make another mark in Arizona history. This time, it could be by leading the Wildcats to what would be their 17th outright or shared Pac-12 regular-season title — and first in four seasons.
