Since the turn of the decade, the Illinois basketball team has been at the forefront of the transfer portal.
Brad Underwood hasn’t bailed on college and said it was too tough, like some coaches. Instead, he took the transfer portal and NIL changes head-on, and the Illini are better off today because of it.
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While Illinois has lost plenty of talent to the transfer portal, we have also used it to improve in key areas. It has helped us get to the Elite Eight and Final Four in two out of the last three seasons. But not everything in the transfer portal is sunshine and rainbows.
Some of the transfer portal recruits Illinois has missed out on have hurt, but in this case, I say thank you to the basketball Gods for us missing out.
On Saturday, Jack Pilgrim of On3.com reported that Kerr Kriisa has been arrested by the FBI in connection to a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme when he was at West Virginia. He is also being extradited back to West Virginia for his court hearing, according to the reports.
Kriisa’s journey has been a long one. Hailing from Estonia, the former four-star recruit has made stops at Arizona, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Cincinnati.
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After his stop with the Mountaineers, that is when Illinois showed our interest. We were being reported as one of the teams that were showing interest in the point guard after he entered the transfer portal.
Thankfully, nothing ever materialized between Illinois and Kriisa. He would spend the next two seasons with Kentucky and Cincinnati and play a total of 28 games and average fewer than 6.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.
Illinois basketball instead had multiple NBA Draft picks lead the way in the two years we could have had Kerr Kriisa
While it is always somewhat disappointing when Illinois doesn’t land players out of the transfer portal, we can always look back with hindsight. This was a great miss by the Illini.
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Instead of having Kriisa for the 2024-25 season, Underwood went out and got Kasparas Jakucionis. He ended up being the No. 20 pick in the NBA Draft after his freshman campaign. That is a pretty good trade-off.
If Kriisa had stuck around for his final year, Illinois would not have developed Keaton Wagler last season. Wagler ended up being the No. 5 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
This might be the best transfer portal miss in the history of college basketball. Kriisa ended up being an alleged convict, and Illinois had two first round NBA Draft picks. What a wild ride.
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This article was originally published on www.writingillini.com as Illinois basketball dodged a bullet by missing out on this transfer portal recruit.
