On Kerr Kriisa's mental state, that Baltic connection with Azuolas Tubelis and the Ducks' rise

Kerr Kriisa hasn’t been available for outside media interviews since Nov. 5, so there’s kinda been a few questions in the queue for a while.

However, his appearance after Oregon’s 63-61 win on Saturday wasn’t a great time to ask about getting eligible, his 17-game penalty, his “Kerr” jersey, or much of anything about his game.

“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.”

After he pump faked and put up an errant 3 as Oregon’s LJ Figueroa dove past him with 0.2 seconds left, Kriisa said the loss was difficult to stomach. 

“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.”

However, Kriisa did shed some light on what he’s been going through, having just joined the Wildcats on the court for their Feb. 4 game at Utah after sitting out UA’s first 17 games because of his NCAA clearinghouse issue.

When asked if he felt he was getting into a groove after four games, Kriisa said he was still “really far from my game shape for sure” but that he’s in a better place mentally.

“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.”

Kriisa said he’s become more confident throughout his first four games, and his offensive stats reflect that: He had 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting against Oregon on Saturday after scoring eight on 2-for-7 shooting against Oregon State. Last weekend, he had three points at Colorado while making 1 of 4 3-pointers (a key late 3) while he did not take a shot in his first game at Utah.

Meanwhile, UA coach Sean Miller has already called him the Wildcats’ best screener and repeatedly praised his toughness, which was clear when he raced in front of Colorado’s McKinley Wright to take a charge on the fast break on Feb. 6.

"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.”

Kriisa also added that he is optimistic about the future.

“It’s still game by game, I get better and more confident,” Kriisa said. “And what I’d also like to add here is that I really like the way we play. 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 finish this year strong.”

It was obvious Kriisa and Tubelis have some obvious chemistry together, with Kriisa being from Estonia and Tubelis from another Baltic state, Lithuania. Of Kriisa's five assists Saturday, four were to Tubelis.

Sitting across the podium from Tubelis after the game, Kriisa explained their bond.

“We know each other for a very long time,” Kriisa said.

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“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.”

Oregon actually had only one more second-chance point than Arizona, getting 16 points off 12 offensive rebounds, but that wasn’t much consolation to Miller. The Wildcats had not previously been outrebounded all season before Oregon had 38 overall rebounds to UA's 30.

“They had plenty of second-chance opportunities. They kept possessions alive,” Miller said. "You know, when you are in these types of games, you have to finish but you also have to bring your identity to the game, and you let a team come in at McKale Center and throw you out of the way?

"(Oregon acted as if it said) 'Go get the ball -- point guard, two guard, 5-10 guard, 6-9 player.' It’s just they wanted to ball and to their credit, and to their programs credit, their coach and their staff's credit, they were just the more physical, nasty tougher team.

“It's like, `Hey, if we don't go get these second shots, we're not going to win and they went and got them. That's clearly to Oregon’s credit. That was in my opinion the difference in the game, because we played 40 minutes against Oregon and had six turnovers.”

While there was no doubt a lot of focus on Arizona’s final play with 1.1 seconds left, the Wildcats also had about 14 seconds before that to get a shot off before Oregon fouled Bennedict Mathurin.

Miller was asked why his team has struggled to get off good shots in those situations.

“It’s me,” he said. “I have to do a better job.”

After two COVID pauses, injuries to several key players (including Eric Williams, who didn’t play Saturday) and a drop out of the AP Top 25, Oregon appears to be ascending.

But that was not really of consolation for Miller.

“No,” he said.

While the Ducks improved to 7-3 in the Pac-12, still with time to win the conference if it can avoid another COVID pause, Oregon coach Dana Altman wasn’t proclaiming anything yet.

“I think we can get a lot better,” Altman said. “Time’s running out on us. We’ve only got a couple of weeks here but man we’ve got to have a sense of urgency. We did some fundamental things, not recognizing the shot clock, not getting it right out of our hands and we got double teams sometimes where a guy got wide open and we held it and tried to make the spectacular play and then they cover it.

“If we get some of those things cleaned up and really get our execution better, I think we can make a tremendous jump.”