Maybe Kerr Kriisa and Ira Lee aren’t missing that much after all.
Just three hours after the Wildcats managed to squeeze in a 74-55 win over Grambling State on Friday afternoon without the two projected rotation players — Kriisa is ineligible and Lee had a concussion — Arizona announced that Sunday’s scheduled game against UTEP was canceled because of a positive test within the Miners’ program.
It was Arizona’s second canceled game in five days, and the Wildcats were not able to find a substitute game for Sunday after initially looking into playing somebody else in UTEP’s spot.
That means Arizona won’t play again until facing Pac-12 rival Colorado on Wednesday, and that Kerr and Lee have so far only missed the Wildcats’ one game over low-major Grambling.
Kriisa played in a high-level game anyway on Saturday. He just had to go all the way to Europe, far away from the NCAA eligibility folks who haven’t yet cleared him to play college basketball.
Instead of helping out James Akinjo and foul-plagued Jemarl Baker for Arizona against Grambling, Kriisa started for the Estonian national team in its 84-56 loss to Russia at Tallin, Estonia. Kriisa struggled, going scoreless with 0-for-4 3-point shooting, but it was a chance to play basketball.
Kriisa will do it again Monday against North Macedonia in Estonia’s second FIBA Eurobasket 2022 qualifying game. UA coach Sean Miller said Kriisa will return to Tucson afterward, even though he can continue to take his UA classes remotely.
However, there’s no telling if or when Kriisa will be cleared by the NCAA regardless of where he is. Kriisa told Estonian media he was aware he might not be allowed to play in college all season, and Miller said UA has its “fingers crossed” on what might happen.
“They don’t tell me what they’re going to do two weeks from now as it applies to amateurism and eligibility,” Miller said when asked how he and Kerr left things before the player departed Tucson. “All that we can do is send Kerr home to compete for his country. I talk to him every day, and wait on his return.
“I guess he has the option of not returning. But again, I can’t really give you a wholehearted evaluation or answer of his mindset at the conclusion of the tournament.
“I wish he was eligible. We believe that he could or should be, but that’s not up to me to comment on. I’m the coach of the team. We’ll let our compliance office and Kerr and his family deal with that issue.”
The Wildcats also have no real idea when Lee will return either, although Miller said Friday that the forward is symptom-free and will begin resuming practice activities.
Lee may not be that far off from playing in a game. But Miller said UA is being careful with him, especially since Lee suffered a concussion as a freshman in 2017-18 that kept him out a month toward the end of that season.
“We missed him” against Grambling, Miller said. “And one of the reasons we missed him is you can’t have enough guys that have played in games before and Ira, the one thing about him is he’s very, very physical.
“He’s going to rejoin us here almost immediately (for practice work) but I don’t have the answer of when he’ll be able to play games, simply because I don’t know how he’ll respond towards being back out on the court.”
Then again, the Wildcats really don’t know when any of them will be back in a game.
UTEP said in a statement that it and Arizona were discussing a potential rescheduling of their game — and both of them have the weekend of Dec. 10-12 open — but the Wildcats couldn’t fill the four-game hole between Grambling and Colorado this weekend with one more warmup.
Ryan Reynolds, UA’s director of basketball operations, said the program had some discussions with other schools but that most were already occupied.
The only nearby nonconference opponents, Grand Canyon and temporarily-Phoenix-based New Mexico State, had games this weekend. The UA would have had to attract another team from California or farther away.
“Very quick turnaround from Friday night-Saturday morning to a Sunday game,” Reynolds said. “Logistically, it’s not easy for people to get here.”
The Wildcats also had their scheduled season opener on Nov. 25 against NAU canceled because of a positive test within the Lumberjacks’ program, but Reynolds said the program is still aiming to play the maximum of seven nonconference games. He said UA would continue to work with NAU, UTEP and other regional schools.
However, the start of conference play is already looking shaky for the Wildcats, too.
Colorado is scheduled to arrive for a Wednesday game at McKale Center without one of its best players, wing D’Shawn Schwartz, and two reserves: guard Keeshawn Barthelemy and forward Tristan da Silva.
Schwartz tested positive while Barthelemy and da Silva were quarantined as a result of contact tracing from Schwartz’s positive test, according to the Boulder Daily Camera. All three will miss Wednesday’s game at McKale Center and a home game with Washington State on Dec. 5.
It is also possible that Arizona’s second Pac-12 game, at Stanford on Dec. 19, becomes affected not by testing or tracing but by government action.
On Saturday, the San Jose Mercury News reported that Santa Clara County released new COVID-19 restrictions that included a temporary ban on all high school, collegiate and professional contact sports from Monday until at least Dec. 21.
Stanford and the San Francisco 49ers both play inside county borders. So unless they are granted exceptions, they may have to play elsewhere until the order expires.
