Basketball star Kerr Kriisa moves to University of Kentucky Wildcats
Estonian basketball player Kerr Kriisa is set to play for the prestigious University of Kentucky Wildcats next season.
Kriisa, who plays as a point guard and is starting his fifth and final season playing at NCAA level, announced early last month his intention to leave West Virginia University after one season.
Kentucky are eight-time NCAA champions, and several current stars, including Anthony Davis (LA Lakers), Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns ), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder), Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia 76ers) and Bam Adebayo (Miami Heat) are all among the 28 alumni of the college. Playing this season in the NBA
ESPN journalist Jonathan Givony said the decision on Kriisa was greatly influenced by the team’s new head coach, Mark Pope, who had wanted to recruit the 23-year-old Estonian back in 2020, when Pope was coaching at Brigham Young University.
Kriisa will be the eighth player Pope has recruited to Kentucky this spring.
Kriisa spent his first three seasons playing at college level in the U.S. with the University of Arizona, before moving to West Virginia Mountaineers last summer.
With the latter team, he averaged 11 points, 4.7 assists, 2.5 rebounds, and 0.8 steals per game last season, and played on average 33.4 minutes per game.
On Tuesday, Tallinn City Government decided to propose to the City Council, the discontinuation of the Tallinn Sports School by no later than June 30. The school’s responsibilities and commitments to young athletes previously will thus be transferred to the Tallinn Culture and Sports Department.
Tallinn Deputy Mayor Kaarel Oja (SDE), whose area of responsibility includes sports, said the decision was due to deficiencies identified in the sports school’s operations, along with the city’s goal of reducing the fragmentation of similar activities across various different institutions and departments.
“Tallinn will continue to support young sporting talents, both now and in the future. Going forward, however, this support will be managed through the Tallinn Culture and Sports Department using open application rounds, similar to other forms of sectoral support,” Oja said.
Oja also highlighted two major reasons for the decision. “Firstly, several major and systemic flaws have been identified in the operations of the Tallinn Sports School, as highlighted by the city’s internal audit last summer. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of willingness to address these issues and to make the system more open and transparent.,” Oja said.
“Secondly, it’s important to evaluate how effectively the sports school’s system has been in distributing support. The Tallinn Culture and Sports Department manages other city sports supports with significantly fewer costs and personnel, yet also handles a larger number and budget of supports,” he added.
According to a City of Tallinn press release, an internal audit conducted last year revealed that the conditions for accepting young athletes were unclear and inconsistent with the sports school’s statutes. The audit also found that the established application process was unreasonable, and the evaluation of applications was opaque.
