Kerr Kriisa addresses his future at Kentucky ahead of NCAA Tournament

Kentucky has not had Kerr Kriisa since the team’s 90-89 overtime win over Gonzaga in Seattle back on December 7, the fifth-year guard breaking his foot and undergoing surgery. At the time, the injury was not seen as a season-ending issue with the hope being he could return during SEC play — certainly ahead of the postseason.

As weeks turned to months, Mark Pope‘s tone shifted with every new update before ultimately ruling out Kriisa for the remainder of the season to open the month of March.

“We’re past the window now where he could actually get back,” Pope said. “It’s been little bit of a stubborn healing process and he just hasn’t reached the benchmarks he’s needed to get to in terms of that healing process.”

The Kentucky head coach had previously announced Kriisa was eligible for a medical redshirt, opening the door to a potential sixth season of college basketball in 2025-26.

“Kerr could get a medical redshirt because he meets the qualifications,” Pope said in February. “The two qualifications are less than 30 percent of the games played — he’s barely under 30 percent — and not played past the mid-point. So that is a possibility.”

Because of the injury, we haven’t heard from Kriisa directly since his surgery. After three long months, though, the 6-3 guard was made available to the media ahead of the NCAA Tournament, a chance to pick his brain a bit on the time off and what his future looks like in college basketball.

Will he use that additional season of eligibility at Kentucky? He’s not certain he’ll be using it at all, making it clear that he hasn’t sorted through all of his options yet — his future on the back burner as he focuses on closing out the 2024-25 season with the Wildcats.

“All focus is really on getting through tomorrow, getting through Sunday. Hopefully, day by day, we keep this season going. That’s where my head is at,” Kriisa said. “… My focus is 100 percent this year. I don’t even know if I come back to college, I don’t know anything. I just know that my foot was not good enough to play and risk it. I’ll focus on that stuff later, that’s not about me.”

When he signed with Kentucky out of the transfer portal, his sole focus was on wrapping up his career in Lexington, suiting up in blue and white under Pope with his eyes on a March Madness run himself. Then it was ripped away from him, making this time bittersweet for him personally. He’s excited to be rooting for his teammates in the biggest moment of their lives while also wishing he could be a part of it.

“It’s been difficult. It’s been challenging because I’ve never had a surgery before,” he said. “I’ve never had that long of an injury. The most I’ve sat out is maybe a week or a couple of weeks. It’s definitely very challenging, but I think I learned a lot about myself and tried to stay positive.”

His first choice was to return this season, fighting back to return from surgery and compete with his teammates down the home stretch. As time marched forward and he wasn’t making the progress he had hoped to make, though, the reality of potentially shutting things down presented itself.

He didn’t want to, but why return knowing you’re likely going to be playing at less than 100 percent? Are you hurting the team more by being on the floor than off, letting someone else at full strength take your place in the rotation and provide a greater impact?

“It was complicated because, obviously I heard that I have that chance (to redshirt), but I wanted to come back. That was the number one goal for me — especially with these guys. I think I’ve said it before, but I really wanted to be here with this group of guys. That was the first thing for me. But when I started doing rehab, when I saw that it wasn’t probably going to be happening, then I didn’t want to risk it — meaning I wanted to be 100 percent healthy coming back. I didn’t want to be 80 percent, I didn’t want to be 70 percent. … You want to be at 100 percent, even 120 percent, in March Madness.”

Once he was officially ruled out for the season, his focus turned toward pitching in wherever he saw fit as an extension of the coaching staff and as a cheerleader from the bench.

“Obviously, you want to be out there with your brothers, but I kind of looked at it from the side of, how can I help not playing?” Kriisa said. “For me, it was cool seeing the steps that TP (Travis Perry) has taken game by game. He’s gotten more and more comfortable and better. You want to be out there, but on the other hand, you don’t want to bring negative energy to the team. You don’t want to be a distraction, so you want to help as much as you can.”

Kriisa started his career at Arizona where he played three seasons from 2020-23 (9.4 PPG), followed by a transfer to West Virginia for 2023-24 (11.0 PPG), then another to Kentucky in 2024-25. He averaged 4.4 points, 3.8 assists and 2.4 rebounds in 17.3 minutes per contest in nine games as a Wildcat.

He could technically return for one more season in Lexington or hit the transfer portal to attend a fourth school in six years. If the grind of college basketball and the academic load that comes with isn’t of interest, Kriisa could call it a career and pack his bags with his eyes set on the professional route overseas.

Those conversations will come at a later date, shortly after the season comes to a close. Until then, he plans to help out however he can as the Wildcats push to make a run over the next couple of weeks.