Now that the NCAA Tournament has reached the Sweet Sixteen, the cork has officially been removed from the transfer portal. The 60-day window for prospective student-athletes to enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal opened up on March 13 and will not close until May 11. As teams see their seasons come to a close — some more shockingly than others — there’s also an influx of names that have hit the transfer portal.
That was the case on Wednesday afternoon, as the Arizona Wildcats saw one of their top players enter the transfer portal. The Wildcats, who were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Princeton, have reportedly lost Kerr Kriisa to the transfer portal. NBA Draft analyst Jonathan Givony of ESPN was the first to report the news of Kriisa’s departure.
NEWS: Arizona’s Kerr Kriisa is entering the NCAA transfer portal, he told ESPN,” Givony posted to his Twitter timeline on Wednesday afternoon. “Kriisa, who led the Pac-12 in assists while shooting 37% for 3, will be one of the most coveted players in the transfer market this spring.”
NEWS: Arizona's Kerr Kriisa is entering the NCAA transfer portal, he told ESPN. Kriisa, who led the Pac-12 in assists while shooting 37% for 3, will be one of the most coveted players in the transfer market this spring. pic.twitter.com/92l4guDkxZ
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) March 22, 2023
The junior guard hails from Estonia — a small country in Northern Europe — and was named to the Bob Couy Point Guard of the year Preseason Watch List, the annual award given to the top point guard in the country by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. This season, Kriisa averaged 9.9 points/per game and 5.1 assists/per game. He totaled 180 assists on the season, which led the conference, while also shooting at a high clip from beyond the arc.
As Givony mentions, the Estonia native will be a highly coveted player on the transfer market this spring. We’ll have to see where he ultimately ends up after a once-promising March Madness run for Arizona came to a crashing close.
