Because even the highest-profile Arizona basketball recruits often haven’t played in front of 14,000 fans before arriving in Tucson, many cite “jitters” and “nerves” with their early McKale Center experiences.
That probably won’t be an issue for Estonian point guard Kerr Kriisa, who was officially announced Monday as the program’s latest addition.
Because not only did Kriisa play a Euroleague game for Lithuanian club Zalgiris last October in front of 14,828 fans … but he also shot free throws in that game while those fans gave him a standing ovation.
“It was a really special moment,” said Kriisa, who hit 1 of 2 during that nerve-rattling moment.
“Especially because I’m not from Lithuania.”
A 6-foot-2 scoring point guard, Kriisa is actually from Tartu, Estonia, but left for the chance to play for a high-level club in Kaunas, Lithania. And even though Lithuania and Estonia are both Baltic states, both formerly part of the Soviet Union and only a day’s drive apart, they’re ... different.
“Lithuanians have a lot of jokes about Estonians,” Kriisa says, “and, you know, the opposite” is true with Estonian jokes about Lithuanians.
Kriisa threaded that needle in the same way his court IQ and passing ability allow him to weave through defenses, becoming popular with Lithuanian hoop fans while also becoming what ESPN says is the best European prospect to sign with a U.S. college this season.
Expected to share point guard or possibly play alongside Georgetown transfer James Akinjo next season, Kriisa has a pass-first mentality but can also score as needed.
“I think he does a really good job of balancing scoring and passing,” said 247 analyst Josh Gershon, who has twice scouted Kriisa in Europe.
“He can really shoot it off the bounce from three. He’s also a ridiculous passer. His vision is very, very high. He can make one-handed passes seamlessly off the live dribble.”
Gershon says Kriisa must make up for his average quickness in other ways, and can use more work on ballhandling and scoring ability from the middle, but that the experience he’s had already has significantly helped.
Kriisa even had a chance to face former Arizona guard Nico Mannion in a FIBA U16 game between Italy and Estonia in August 2017.
In Italy’s 65-53 win, Mannion had 22 points on 8-for-20 shooting while Kriisa had six assists and four rebounds despite a rough shooting game (0 for 9).
Gershon, who was in Montenegro to watch the game, said neither player played particularly well but that their talent was obvious.
Kriisa also had a chance to face Italy on a much higher level two months ago — playing for Estonia’s senior national team in a FIBA Eurobasket qualifier in which he went scoreless but had five assists in 18 minutes.
A year earlier, Kriisa took part in a three-day NBA Basketball Without Borders camp at Charlotte, N.C., winning the “GRIT” award for top hustle and defensive play.
Last season, Kriisa grew into the assist leader and second-leading scorer for Zalgiris II, the junior team of his Lithanian club, jelling together bunch of guys who spoke three languages — none of which was his own.
“It’s a mix — Lithuanian, English and Russian,” Kriisa says, laughing.
“It was really funny to communicate with your teammates because we’d speak three different languages at the same time, in the same sentence.”
While spending most of his time last season with Zalgiris II, Kriisa said he also practiced with Zalgiris’ senior club while joining them for that Euroleague win over French club AVSEL, when the Kaunas fans cheered wildly for the 18-year-old prospect when he stepped to the line.
By then, the Lithuanians had adopted Kriisa.
“I’ll tell you honestly, it’s pretty hard to leave Kaunas,” Kriisa said. “I felt like they took me as their own. You need to prove you want to belong there, that you want to be part of this organization. If you do that, then I think they take you as their own.”
Naturally, Zalgiris wanted Kriisa to stay and develop into one of its stars and, maybe, that still happens someday.
But for now, Kriisa is off to Arizona, where maybe Wildcat fans will adopt him the same way Kaunas fans and the Zalgiris club did.
“I’m really thankful for them, that they gave me the opportunity,” Kriisa said.
“I’m sure we didn’t burn the bridges. Who knows after college where I will go? Maybe Zalgiris is the place. We will see.”
