Families of far-flung Arizona Wildcats bring Christmas spirit to them over four-day break

When Abdou Bal scooted into a McKale Center postgame press conference on Thursday to watch his son Adama speak a little English, it was a sign Christmas had arrived for the Arizona Wildcats.

That’s how they do it these days.

With twice as many scholarship players from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean as from North America — and with the COVID-related travel restrictions of the past two winters having largely disappeared — the Wildcats are bringing family to them for their four-day break instead of heading home to visit family.

At least five of the Wildcats’ eight international players had relatives visiting them over the holidays: Pelle Larsson (Sweden), Henri Veesaar (Estonia) and Filip Borovicanin (Serbia) all had their mothers and fathers visiting, while Bal has his father and brother, and Kerr Kriisa’s sister has been around, too.

“We try to find our places and we have a lot of families in town,” Kriisa said. “So we’ll be all right.”

While Kriisa made Christmas plans to accompany walk-on guard Matt Lang to his home in Portland, Oregon, the visit to Tucson by his sister has been a rare chance for family time.

Kriisa spent nearly all of 2020-21 stuck in Tucson (and largely in an apartment) because of COVID concerns, though Kriisa briefly went home to play for his national team in November 2020.

Kriisa’s sister showed up earlier this month, and Kerr posted a picture to his Instagram story of them walking on the McKale Center floor on Thursday, both wearing No. 25 jerseys.

“My sister’s here which I’m really, really appreciative of,” Kriisa said after fifth-ranked Arizona beat Montana State 93-68 on Tuesday. “I haven’t (visited her in) a really long time.”

Also making the Estonia-Tucson commute were Veesaar’s parents, giving the freshman big man a chance for some normalcy during what is his fourth straight season playing in a foreign country. Veesaar played the previous three season for Real Madrid’s junior club in Spain before enrolling at Arizona last fall.

“Just excited to see them,” Veesaar said, noting that his holiday tradition was simply gathering for “a dinner with family members, relatives all together.”

While that’s a total of at least five Estonians in Tucson this month, Kriisa said he wasn’t expecting any sort of Estonian cooking. He thanked Larsson’s parents for presenting that specialty from the other side of the Baltic Sea.

“They cooked us delicious Swedish real meatballs,” Kriisa said. “So shout-out to their family.”

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Then there was Bal, the sophomore from France who showed off of his English-language skills during Thursday’s press conference after Arizona wrapped up the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule.

Bal discussed his return from an ankle injury that hobbled him against Tennessee on Dec. 17 and Montana State on Dec. 20 — “I’m still healing, but it’s getting way better,” Bal said — and analyzed the Wildcats’ pre-Christmas season, which included a Maui Invitational title, big nonconference wins over Indiana and Tennessee but also an 81-66 loss at Utah on Nov. 30.

“The Utah game was a game that we should have won, but I think we learned from it,” Bal said. “I can’t wait to get back after the break and start the Pac-12 season, because I think that definitely we can get better. That’s what we did this whole preseason and we’ve gotta keep growing.”

On a lighter note, while sitting on the postgame interview podium next to senior guard Courtney Ramey, Bal also found himself defending a challenge of sorts.

“Trying to play Adama in (NBA) 2K but he don’t want to play me,” Ramey said, smiling. “So I’m gonna let him enjoy his time with his family.”

Ramey could have plenty time on his hands this weekend for video games. He said he wasn’t sure if he’d fly home to St. Louis because of the nasty Midwestern weather, which could threaten his return in time for the resumption of Arizona’s practices on Tuesday.

Lithuanian twins Azuolas and Tautvilas Tubelis will remain in town for the holidays.

Of the Wildcats’ domestic scholarship players, only Cedric Henderson (Memphis) was certain to fly home for what will be a four-day break. Freshmen Dylan Anderson and Kylan Boswell both have Arizona-based families they can reach easily.

There’s also another U.S. citizen on the roster who is grateful a his short commute to see family this weekend.

“All I told the guys is, ‘I hope you catch your flights,’” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “I looked at the weather across the country. I’m staying in Tucson.”