An exit interview, of sorts, with ex-Wildcat Kerr Kriisa, whose personality left an indelible mark

Several hours after announcing he was leaving the Arizona Wildcats, guard Kerr Kriisa was introduced on a podcast with a particularly rough version of the news.

“The haters got what they wanted,” host Josh Kahn said.

Sitting on a sofa with now-former teammate Pelle Larsson to record their “A Nameless Podcast” on Wednesday, Kriisa arched his head back and laughed.

“I gave in,” Kriisa said, grinning. “Couldn’t handle it anymore.”

It was classic Kriisa. In his three years with the Wildcats, the Estonian point guard embraced praise and criticism alike with a candid, quick-witted and sometimes brash personality.

“If I would listen to everybody, I would probably be in a mental hospital,” Kriisa said earlier this season after recording a triple-double at Utah. “I wouldn’t be able to play basketball, and that’s it.”

Not only did Kriisa tell it like it is, but he also told opposing players what he thought they were. That included not only Pac-12 opponents but even NBA superstar Luka Doncic, who went against Kriisa’s national team during a FIBA World Cup qualifying game last summer.

“Estonia was leading late in the first quarter, 23-18, until Kerr Kriisa started talking trash to Doncic,” Basketball News reported. “Soon after, Doncic led Slovenia on a 17-0 run.”

Uh-huh. As a junior at Arizona this season, Kriisa apparently did some of the same sort of thing. He even drew this comment from normally soft-spoken Oregon center N’Faly Dante after the Ducks’ 87-68 blowout win over the Wildcats on Jan. 14 at Eugene:

“He’s been talking crap, calling you names and stuff.”

After intercepting one of Kriisa’s passes early in that game, Dante took it back and dunked over Kriisa so powerfully that Kriisa skidded on his back straight into the cushion of the basket’s base.

“Well, the guy in front of me, well, he piss me off, so …” Dante explained later. “So I was thinking I’m gonna just go for it.

“Felt great. It’s somebody you don’t like, so it’s all right. Just make him look embarrassed.”

Embracing the role

Kriisa gripped the lightning rod early in his career. Lithuanian UA forward Azuolas Tubelis noticed that while playing with and against his Baltic brother in national junior team events and in the Lithuanian developmental club league that both played in.

“He always had this energy on the court, so it was really hard to play against him,” Tubelis said last fall. “His team on the court was always energetic, and every time he makes a play, he celebrates. So that’s like a positive thing. It’s really good to have that kind of player on the team because it brings a lot.”

As a college player, Kriisa began making his mark on the Wildcats’ road swing through Utah and Colorado in February 2021, after sitting out the first 17 games as a freshman that season because of NCAA concerns over a pro contract he had signed in Lithuania.

When Kriisa played 19 minutes in his debut against Utah, then-UA coach Sean Miller said: “you could kind of see his spark.” Two days later, Kriisa made it even more obvious: He jumped in front of veteran Colorado point guard McKinley Wright on a fastbreak to take a charge.

“He’s got a little edge to him,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle noted last season. “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.”

In Kriisa’s third college game, Miller inserted him into the starting lineup.

Although Kriisa briefly entered the transfer portal after Miller was fired in April 2021, Lloyd successfully re-recruited him, saying he told Kriisa he would regret if he didn’t stick around to play for the “most European American coach in the game.”

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Lloyd frequently cited Kriisa for bringing “swag” into the Wildcats’ magical 33-4 season in 2021-22, while Kriisa ranked second in the Pac-12 in assists per game (4.7) and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.15).

Along the way, Kriisa never stopped having fun. Though fighting off a high-ankle sprain that kept him out for three postseason games last season, Kriisa returned for a second-round NCAA Tournament game against TCU, then walked off the court while mocking the TCU “knuckle up” hand signal after the Wildcats escaped with a win in overtime.

At McKale Center, not surprisingly, he took it all in. Kriisa blew kisses and outstretched his arms, while always wearing a No. 25 jersey that carried his first name — at his request — having embraced the fact that legendary UA point guard Steve Kerr already had a No. 25 jersey hanging on the McKale Center wall.

Then there was the headband. Having worn a pink headband during fall 2021 preseason workouts in support of breast cancer awareness, Kriisa was encouraged to keep wearing one in games last season because he had been practicing well.

“Kerr has some swag,” Lloyd said in November 2021. “As long as he plays with confidence, he plays with high effort and he plays with intelligence then I’ll let him be swaggy, OK? But if he doesn’t play with intelligence, he doesn’t play with great effort, then he can’t wear the headband. That’s the rule.”

Kriisa wore the headband as the Wildcats’ starting point guard in 2021-22 and this season realized he couldn’t really take it off.

He ditched the headband for UA’s Nov. 7 season opener after shooting poorly in the Red-Blue Game and a preseason exhibition, but that didn’t work. By then, the headband had become his signature, featured even on NIL T-shirts marketed in his name.

“I got really bad comments and bad messages,” Kriisa said. “Then I was like, `Oh, damn, like, I’m still trying to live.’ So I guess I had to pull my headband back out.”

Time to move on

He actually made it a cape in the next game. Wearing the headband against Southern four days later, Kriisa pulled off the second triple-double of his career, with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists.

That followed his triple-double at Utah in 2021-22, the first for a UA player since Andre Iguodala did it three times in 2003-04 — but also one in which Kriisa owed Lloyd a favor.

Kriisa had actually been taken out of that game with 3:02 to go, with UA en route to a comfortable 97-77 win, but at that point Kriisa had only 21 points, 10 assists ... and nine rebounds.

Kriisa “gave me a look with those puppy-dog eyes,” Lloyd said, and the coach reinserted him.

“Totally not my style,” Lloyd said. “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.’ ”

Kriisa finished this season as the Pac-12 leader in assists per game (5.14) and the sixth best in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.98).

Kriisa also shot 36.6% from 3-point range this season but was just 4 of 20 from long range in his last four games while dealing with a separated shoulder he suffered against Stanford in the Pac-12 quarterfinals.

In his final UA appearance, during UA’s shocking 59-55 first-round loss to No. 15 seed Princeton, Kriisa was limited despite playing 36 minutes. He declined to make an excuse for his shoulder or his cut right (shooting) hand but was 1 for 7 from the field, with three points, two assists, four turnovers and little of his usual swag.

Six days later, Kriisa grabbed his podcasting microphone, ran his hand through his hair, tilted his head forward slightly and explained, basically, that he felt his UA career had run its course.

“Honestly, I just think it was good for a fresh start for me and obviously for the program,” Kriisa said on the podcast. “I’m very grateful and thankful for the three years that I was here. Looking around now (in) college basketball, I feel like there’s not a lot of guys who would stay in place three years, so I’m really happy I got into good situation, great coaches.

“I feel really calm inside. I’m really happy with my decision. Of course, I’m sad to leave Tucson, but it is what it is.”