Kerr Krissa

[Basscat1987]

Am I the only one who would love for him to get more minutes? I don’t know how many he’s averaging but I doubt it’s more than 15 a game. 12 lastnight. I know he hasn’t shot it great but u could argue he’s the 2nd best shooter on the team based off career stats. I just want more than 12 minutes a game from him.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

Yes but he needs to get better defensively; helluva facilitator and shooter though.

 

[DraftCat]

He struggles to get shots off. He's shooting from the NBA 3 point line in a lot of his attempts.

I'm fine with how Pope is using him right now... he's an energy guy.

 

[bnewt]

I like the speed and passing he brings, but he does hurt on defense. He also takes some bad shots

 

[Fox2monk]

He struggles to get shots off. He's shooting from the NBA 3 point line in a lot of his attempts.

I'm fine with how Pope is using him right now... he's an energy guy.

I love him coming off the bench. He’s a spark plug.

 

[megablue]

Here's an interesting observation: So far, Kriisa has taken 26 shots, with 24 of them being three-pointers. He has only attempted 2 free-throws, making both. As of right now, throughout his five-year career, he has attempted 837 shots, with 671 of them being three-pointers (80.2%). He is 121/153 from the free-throw line (79.1%) and is shooting 36.5% on threes for his career. Hopefully, he has the ability to be more than a one-dimensional scoring threat. If not, he will be much easier to defend, and will not get to the line very often. I agree with others here ... he is not strong defensively.

 

[Bungalow Bill]

Not me. Not yet anyway. Teams are putting him in the pick and roll to get mismatches. So far we're much better with Butler in the game. He can get to the rim and is such a great defender the pick and roll doesn't work much against him. KK will get better as we progress but we'll need Butler on the floor against the better teams until he does.

 

[JimboBBN]

Butler is clearly better than Kerr, so he needs the majority of the minutes at PG. And as others have said, I love the energy KK brings off the bench. I think it’s just right the way it is.

 

[KA4Prez]

He's a 15-20 MPG guy as a backup PG. He doesn't do enough to justify playing when Butler is also on the floor.
The guy who needs more run is Brea. He needs to shoot 8-10 threes a game.

 

[JonathanW]

Kriisa has averaged 15.3 mpg so far this year. And that is with him making <30% of his shots. So, you would expect the minutes to go up from there if he starts making a decent %.

As for last night, I don't know why but Pope played the team differently than the prior 5 games. Last night was a more traditional 8-man rotation with 4 guys playing 28-33min. Because our bench is almost as good as our starters, that is not the optimum way for this team to play. Most nights (vs P5 schools) our starting/best 5 aren't going to be significantly better than the other team's best 5. But our bench will be significantly better than theirs. So we need to keep our guys fresh, while wearing their guys down or force them to go deeper into their bench than they want.

 

[megablue]

Kriisa has averaged 15.3 mpg so far this year. And that is with him making <30% of his shots. So, you would expect the minutes to go up from there if he starts making a decent %.

As for last night, I don't know why but Pope played the team differently than the prior 5 games. Last night was a more traditional 8-man rotation with 4 guys playing 28-33min. Because our bench is almost as good as our starters, that is not the optimum way for this team to play. Most nights (vs P5 schools) our starting/best 5 aren't going to be significantly better than the other team's best 5. But our bench will be significantly better than theirs. So we need to keep our guys fresh, while wearing their guys down or force them to go deeper into their bench than they want.

I could be wrong, but I think the shorter bench may have been because we needed ball-handling against WKU's pressure MTM and Almonor played only 7 minutes because Carr had such a phenomenal height advantage against those defending him.

 

[WeWant9]

I love him coming off the bench. He’s a spark plug.

Yeah, he’s the type of guy who is great off the bench. He also seems comfortable with it and even said at the start of the season Butler is the guy at pg.

 

[Fox2monk]

Yeah, he’s the type of guy who is great off the bench. He also seems comfortable with it and even said at the start of the season Butler is the guy at pg.

I love his attitude and the fact that he isn’t scared at all. He will pull for the game winner,
.

 

[twwilliams9]

Here's an interesting observation: So far, Kriisa has taken 26 shots, with 24 of them being three-pointers. He has only attempted 2 free-throws, making both. As of right now, throughout his five-year career, he has attempted 837 shots, with 671 of them being three-pointers (80.2%). He is 121/153 from the free-throw line (79.1%) and is shooting 36.5% on threes for his career. Hopefully, he has the ability to be more than a one-dimensional scoring threat. If not, he will be much easier to defend, and will not get to the line very often. I agree with others here ... he is not strong defensively.

Man that was a deep dive into his game. Kudos

 

[megablue]

Man that was a deep dive into his game. Kudos

Thanks, but this website has these stats for all players and is easy to review:

Kerr Kriisa College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Kerr Kriisa - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

 

[UKSanders]

Am I the only one who would love for him to get more minutes? I don’t know how many he’s averaging but I doubt it’s more than 15 a game. 12 lastnight. I know he hasn’t shot it great but u could argue he’s the 2nd best shooter on the team based off career stats. I just want more than 12 minutes a game from him.

Butler is clearly better than Kerr, so he needs the majority of the minutes at PG. And as others have said, I love the energy KK brings off the bench. I think it’s just right the way it is.

To be fair, too, Butler is only averaging 22 mpg, so while they aren't evenly split, it isn't like it's 30/10 for the PG mins.

Also, don't forget the staff has been heavily analyzing output per minute data, so substitution patterns have more meaning now. With that in mind, they may be giving Kriisa less minutes b/c he just performs better in shorter spurts.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

I think he's playing plenty for what he brings to the team.

 

[Basscat1987]

I think he's playing plenty for what he brings to the team.

If that’s the case then we should really start seeing Williams minutes go down. He is a liability on offsense, his defense isn’t what it was hyped up to be. Just bc you’re defensive player of the year at Drexel doesent mean it’s going to translate and to me it hasn’t. His best skill is passing but he is also turnover prone with some of those passes. Try’s to make a pass that isn’t there, etc., and the fact that he seems to give half ass effort the entire game is a sight for sore eyes.

 

[king of cali]

Nope. The more you see of Kriisa you get diminishing returns. 12-15 minutes for him is perfect.

 

[megablue]

Nope. The more you see of Kriisa you get diminishing returns. 12-15 minutes for him is perfect.

If you play mostly when a 75% three-point shooter is in the game, throw it to him and he hits it ... do you get an assist ??
I'm asking because I do not know how assists are determined and scored in that situation. If the answer is YES, he is smart to get Brea the ball, but most passes are just direct passes around the arc and nothing particularly skillful.

 

[Slowwalker]

If he was more of a scoring threat, he would. I love his energy off the bench and he brings a ton of immeasurable factors to the game.

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

If he's not making shots, he's not really helping us because his defense is among the team's worst.

If he wants to play more, he needs to shoot the ball better. Until then, I'm fine with him only getting 12 to 15 minutes a game.

 

[G-PIP]

Kriisa has averaged 15.3 mpg so far this year. And that is with him making <30% of his shots. So, you would expect the minutes to go up from there if he starts making a decent %.

As for last night, I don't know why but Pope played the team differently than the prior 5 games. Last night was a more traditional 8-man rotation with 4 guys playing 28-33min. Because our bench is almost as good as our starters, that is not the optimum way for this team to play. Most nights (vs P5 schools) our starting/best 5 aren't going to be significantly better than the other team's best 5. But our bench will be significantly better than theirs. So we need to keep our guys fresh, while wearing their guys down or force them to go deeper into their bench than they want.

Having two guys at every position that are both good players and maybe even compliment each other, and then playing them major, maybe even similar, minutes is in and of itself a massively advantageous way to play regardless. But it’s an even bigger advantage when you play really fast. Basically playing 2 guys comparable minutes is a “system.” And if you can get the level of players UK can it is a dominant system.

Pope has used this system for a number of years now and Bruce Pearl has been using it also for a few years to give Auburn a much better team than the individual parts would justify. Pearl’s bench coaching certainly isn’t the reason for Auburn’s success.

When Calipari platooned that was the most dominant UK basketball I’ve seen. But Calipari stumbled into in it. He only did it as a way to give enough “showcase” minutes for players’ draft purposes. And after the incredible success of that system what did Calipari do? He promised to never employ it again because it might be used against him in recruiting an OAD freshman to start at every position – couldn’t have any competing for or sharing of minutes if you’re only OAD, right? And, of course, the 5-star OAD recruiting fanboys in the fanbase agreed that platooning must never occur again. But it is occurring again – and will continue to occur at UK because it’s the way to win games. And the kicker is something Calipari mentioned but was afraid to try to sell, and something the recruiting fanboys couldn’t see that most UK hardcore basketball fans could, and that is that the system even made the players look better for draft purposes.

 

[Eagles_Ball]

The guy who needs more run is Brea. He needs to shoot 8-10 threes a game.

Agreed, but that needs to come at the cost of Williams/Garrison mins. Our best lineup is small with Carr at the 5 for a large chunk of mins. Williams was AWFUL last night. He and Garrison both force WAY too much offensively. Problem is, that smaller lineup is considerably worse defensively. Hopefully Williams or Garrison will get a feel for their role offensively. I’ve about had my fill of them trying to drive it from the top of the key. Let the zooms develop and/or set the ball screen/DHO. But please, just stop with the 7 footer putting his head down and “creating”. That’s not going to get it done against good teams.

 

[crawfords corner]

I think he's perfect right about where he's at. If he were shooting the 3 ball better he'd probably have more minutes. Until he gets going there 15.5 is right about where it should be,

 

[UKWildcats1987]

If that’s the case then we should really start seeing Williams minutes go down. He is a liability on offsense, his defense isn’t what it was hyped up to be. Just bc you’re defensive player of the year at Drexel doesent mean it’s going to translate and to me it hasn’t. His best skill is passing but he is also turnover prone with some of those passes. Try’s to make a pass that isn’t there, etc., and the fact that he seems to give half ass effort the entire game is a sight for sore eyes.

Take it up with Pope. He's the coach, not me.