Kerr Kriisa, Arizona veterans helping offset younger players' struggles in early season

The votes are in, even if Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd wasn’t interested in casting his.

Kerr Kriisa: Headband? Or no headband?

“I like triple-double Kerr, whatever that looks like,” Lloyd said Friday.

In that case, headband it is. The Wildcats’ Estonian junior point guard collected 14 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists in the Wildcats’ 95-78 win over Southern on Friday while wearing the headband he had discarded four days earlier in UA’s season opener.

Kriisa had ditched the headband after struggling from 3-point range earlier this fall, going 1 for 6 in the Red Blue Game and 0 for 2 in a Nov. 1 exhibition against Western Oregon.

He also kept it off during UA’s 117-75 season-opening win over Nicholls, and collected nine points, seven assists to only one turnover.

Then Kriisa realized which way the public opinion winds were blowing.

“The reason I didn’t really wear a headband in the last game was I felt like I’d been practicing pretty good without it,” Kriisa said. “But I got really bad comments and bad messages. Then I was like, ‘Oh, damn, like I’m still trying to live.’ So I guess I had to pull my headband back out.”

Kriisa’s headband has become so much a part of his look that it is featured prominently on the NIL T-shirts of him that the Arizona Assist collective has been selling. But when asked where he saw or heard all those messages, Kriisa said only that “some guys” told him he had to wear it.

Apparently, Lloyd was not one of those guys.

“Here’s the thing: I didn’t even notice,” Lloyd said. “I don’t notice those things.”

What Lloyd did notice was Kerr weaving the Wildcats through a Southern defense that frequently deployed full-court pressure, helping the Wildcats build enough of a cushion that they could later survive a 14-point drop in their lead down the stretch when Lloyd turned to his younger reserves.

Kriisa hit half of his six 3-pointers and had just three turnovers despite the Jaguars’ attempts to make his treks up the court miserable, validating Lloyd’s steadfast support of him throughout a rough preseason.

“I think Kerr’s good every day. I really do,” Lloyd said. “Nobody’s gonna get a triple-double every night, but Kerr is just a good basketball player. He’s got such a high IQ. He’s got a great motor and he’s competitive. You can coach him on a cerebral level where he understands what’s going on. He’ll look at you, he’ll nod, and for the most part he’ll go out and do it.”

While the Jaguars aren’t as talented as the teams UA will likely face in the Maui Invitational over Thanksgiving week, their defense ranked second nationally in turnover percentage (25.2) last season and they forced 19 turnovers over UA’s 83 possessions, a percentage of 22.8.

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But Kriisa had just three turnovers over 30 minutes played, handling the ball whenever he was on the floor.

“I thin Kerr’s biggest strength is just his confidence. He’s not scared,” Lloyd said. “There’s some times he’ll do some risky plays and he probably knows that coach probably isn’t going to love this, but he’s still not afraid, which is important.

“I mean, maybe our younger guys are a little bit scared of me and making mistakes, but they’ve got to get over that. They’ve got to grow up. But our veteran crew, I definitely know this: Hopefully they have a healthy respect for me, but they’re not scared of me. They go out and make plays and sometimes they’re a little too aggressive, but at the end it usually is a good thing for us.”

That sort of analysis appeared fitting after the Wildcats’ performance Friday. Not only did Kriisa lead the way through the Southern defense, but three veteran starters all put up 17 points each: Azuolas Tubelis, Pelle Larsson and Oumar Ballo.

Meanwhile, younger reserve players such as wing Adama Bal, guard Kylan Boswell and big man Henri Veesaar struggled at times but flashed promise in others. Boswell, for example, shot only 1 for 5 but recorded assists on four straight UA baskets late in the first half, when the Wildcats expanded their lead from 15 to 19 points.

The Wildcats led 49-31 at halftime and up to 29 in the second before slipping after the starters had been all pulled out of the game with five minutes left. After Lloyd pulled out his last starter, Tubelis, the Wildcats held an 89-60 lead. Less than three minutes later, UA’s lead was 90-75.

Lloyd bit his lip.

“It’s hard. I mean, sit in my chair,” Lloyd said, when asked if he considered putting his starters back in. “You probably think you have the game under control, so you’re gonna get the win. But you have standards of how you want to play and those standards weren’t being met. You put one of the main guys back in, and what if he gets hurt? And these seasons are long. They’re not easy.”

So Lloyd rode out the last five minutes mostly with a group that included Boswell, Bal, freshman Filip Borovicanin, Veesaar and fellow freshman big man Dylan Anderson, with walk-on Matt Lang taking Bal’s place with 2:11 left.

UA wound up winning by 17. Not a blowout, but maybe with memories that will help in tougher games ahead.

“It’s kind of an eye-opener for our guys, especially some of our younger guys,” Lloyd said. “They need to understand: These games you don’t take for granted. You’re not in high school anymore. You’re not playing AAU basketball anymore. You’re playing all Division I players who are good players and they have pride.

“So obviously I was disappointed with how our younger group finished and we’re going to learn some great lessons from that. We have standards in this program, with effort and intelligence. And they didn’t meet them. It’s that simple.

“That veteran group is setting an example for them, so they need to open their eyes.”