Kerr Kriisa missed Utah game after getting injured ‘horsing around’ during pregame meal

The next time Arizona men’s basketball gathers for its pregame meal, Kerr Kriisa and his teammates will probably think twice about roughhousing.

Kriisa sat out the Wildcats’ 82-64 win over Utah on Saturday after injuring himself “horsing around” at the pregame meal, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said afterward.

“We don’t think it’s anything serious but they held him out tonight and I know that sounds crazy, but that’s what happened,” Lloyd said to open his postgame press conference. “We look forward to getting him back and being at full strength very soon.”

Lloyd did not give any details on what Kriisa’s injury entailed but said the point guard will be available for Arizona’s upcoming road trip, which begins Thursday at Stanford and includes games at Cal and UCLA.

Kriisa was injured so close to tip off that Lloyd didn’t have time to adjust the Wildcats’ game plan to reflect his absence. Without him in the lineup, the Wildcats struggled offensively in the first half, turning the ball over 10 times and shooting 1 of 12 from 3-point range.

“We didn’t really do any crazy adjustments,” Lloyd said. “We kind of made some adjustments as the game was going on.”

In Lloyd’s postgame presser, he stressed the importance of Arizona building a winning culture while acknowledging there’s still a ways to go.

“We’re a young team that’s going through some growing pains and we’ve just happened to stack up some wins,” Lloyd said. We’re gonna fight really hard to have a great culture here.

“Kerr is having an amazing season and obviously you guys see how important he is to our team. Kerr is not the only guy involved in this situation. It’s just unfortunate that he’s the one who had the injury. We’re gonna just handle it as a team and move forward from there.”