‘He’s going to be taunting everybody at all times.’ And Mark Pope is going to love it.

Before he had even settled into his new job, Cody Fueger earned a place of renown in Kentucky basketball fan circles.

Fueger, the first assistant hired to join Mark Pope’s UK coaching staff , quickly became known as the “Boom” guy. Pope had been tasked with building a roster from scratch in the wake of John Calipari’s departure from Arkansas, and fans knew the Wildcats would need players. And fast.

Just as they had followed every move of the coaching search to replace Calipari on social media, they scoured the internet for information on possible new Wildcats.

Fueger became a must follow.

Every time UK landed a recruit — and often before the news had become public — the assistant coach posted a comical GIF to his X account, the word “Boom” added to it, the sure sign that good news was on the way. Excitement, obviously, ensued.

Fueger later let it be known that he asked each new recruit to pick his own “Boom” GIF before posting. As the commitments started to mount, word spread among UK targets that this was a thing.

“A lot of them already knew about it,” Fueger said. “And they’re like, ‘Hey, I want to use this one.’ Koby Brea sent me Drake right away.”

Most of the GIFs have been celebratory, but simple. Scroll through Fueger’s collection of Booms , however, and one stands out immediately for its elaborate oddness.

It shows comedy icon Danny DeVito walking toward the viewer — wearing a sweatshirt featuring the face of a dog — while a massive explosion takes place in the background and dollar bills rain down from the sky.

It was selected by new Kentucky point guard Kerr Kriisa .

“That’s him, right?” said Fueger, trying and failing to stifle laughter. “He’s just nuts.”

So, Kriisa actually picked that to be the GIF announcing his UK commitment to the world.

“Yeah,” Fueger said, his tone and expression saying the rest.

Fueger, it turns out, has known Kriisa for years. The player’s fellow Wildcats have been his teammates for only a few weeks, but whenever his name was mentioned, it elicited that same exact expression in every one of them. A knowing smirk. Wait until you get a load of this guy, all their faces said.

Kerr Kriisa to Kentucky

Like most of his teammates, Kriisa — a 6-foot-2 guard from Estonia — is no college basketball newcomer.

Pope and Fueger actually started recruiting Kriisa before he came to the United States — while the coaches were at BYU — but the European playmaker committed to Arizona out of high school and spent three seasons there, an immediate starter on some highly successful teams.

Last year, he transferred to West Virginia, and while he put up good numbers — 11.0 points and 4.7 assists per game, a 42.4% 3-point shooter — Kriisa lost the coach he was committed to, Hall of Famer Bob Huggins , during the offseason, and the Mountaineers’ season went south.

Anyone who watched much of Kriisa over the past four years knows he can play. He’s shifty on and off the ball, a flashy player who can get hot in a hurry from deep. It’s also quickly evident that he likes to talk. And once he starts, there’s not much stopping him.

Kriisa met with local reporters for the first time Thursday afternoon. He often steered the conversation to how grateful he is to be in Lexington, playing in Pope’s offense alongside his “awesome new teammates” and being part of the “rich history” of UK basketball with its “super special” fan base.

He didn’t dwell much on his trash-talking reputation, but he didn’t deny its truth either.

“Some guys do it, some guys don’t,” Kriisa said, matter-of-factly, of the on-court chatter. “I just think it makes it a little bit fun.”

Has it always been part of his game?

“I mean, as a 6-2 guard, you gotta have some …” Kriisa paused briefly, a mischievous look on his face as he glanced to see if any of UK’s media relations folks were listening in before he continued with the first on-the-record curse word of his Wildcats career. “… s--- to you. Because it’s just so competitive. There’s always young guys coming up, and if you’re being soft, you get pushed away — then you’re out of this business real quick.”

Some of Kriisa’s new teammates aren’t complete strangers. He played against a few of them in the Big 12, including Jaxson Robinson and Otega Oweh .

Robinson, who was BYU’s leading scorer last season, reflected on Kriisa’s antics in the Cougars’ game against West Virginia.

“He was talking trash to Coach Fueger,” he said with a grin.

A player talking trash to a coach?

“That’s right,” Robinson confirmed.

Before the game? During the game?

“Both,” he said, smiling at the memory. “That’s just Kerr, though. Kerr’s always going to bring the energy, and that’s what I love. It’s just his competitive spirit — his willingness to go out there and compete every single time.”

Oweh, who played against Kriisa at Oklahoma, was asked to rate his new teammate’s ability to talk trash.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d probably give it like a 7.5 or 8,” he said.

That doesn’t sound too extreme.

That’s just in practice, Oweh clarified. Oh.

“In games, he’s probably going to go up to like an 11 out of 10,” he said. “You know, in practice, he’s still trying to be nice a little bit. But when I played against him, he talked crap, for sure. That’s something I’m excited for, because I also talk crap. So I’ve got another partner with me.”

Kriisa’s most famous bit of basketball banter came a couple of years ago during a FIBA World Cup qualifying game between Estonia and Slovenia, with Luka Doncic — one of the best players on the planet — on the receiving end. Kriisa came across the court to wag his finger in the face of Doncic , who looked surprised by the whole scene before jawing back at the young Estonian player.

“If somebody says something to us, we talk back,” Kriisa said that night. “He showed a reaction, so it means it’s pretty easy to get into his head, too.”

Kriisa went on to praise Doncic as a player after that game. Interestingly enough, he plans to wear No. 77 — the number Doncic wears for the Dallas Mavericks — at UK this season.

On Thursday, he referred to the incident as “nothing much” and something that happened a “long time ago.” He also made it clear that after he stops talking, he moves on. And he doesn’t much care what outsiders have to say about it.

“If I would pay attention to media and what all you guys are gonna write, then I’m gonna drive myself crazy. We don’t need that,” Kriisa said. “I focus on the basketball games, trying to win a lot of games, and that’s the goal.”

Kriisa’s future as a Wildcat

There’s not much doubt that Kriisa will be getting under the skin of UK’s opponents — and especially rival fans — over the course of the 2024-25 season .

So far, he’s endeared himself to his teammates.

Robinson, who described himself as an “introverted” person, said Kriisa is the Wildcat he’s been spending the most time with away from the court.

“There’s a lot of things that he does that are different from us Americans,” he said. “So just him being from Estonia, it’s really cool, just to be able to hang out with him and see what he likes to do, things that he did back home. We just talked about different stories from him and his experiences. So, I mean, we have a great relationship.”

Oweh said he’s enjoyed sharing the court with Kriisa.

“I would say I like playing with Kerr way more than playing against him,” he said with a smile. “I mean, he’s a great point guard. He can facilitate it. That’s what he’s really good at. But he can also shoot the lights out. … So it’s just been amazing.”

Kriisa might have come to town with a certain reputation, but he said all the right things Thursday afternoon. He even referred to Lamont Butler — the other veteran point guard on this Kentucky roster — as “PG1” and credited Butler with helping him get better in summer practices. As far as who gets to start, who gets the ball in his hands the most, and all of that?

“I haven’t really thought about a coaching job yet, so I don’t know,” Kriisa quipped. “You might have to ask Coach Pope that.”

He stressed that he’s at UK to win a national championship, first and foremost, and he’s fine with doing whatever it takes to get there. That’s the vibe Butler has been getting, too.

“Kerr is amazing,” he said. “I love playing against him in practice, playing with him in practice. His energy that he brings — he’s a goofy guy, a funny guy — always a talking-loud guy. So it’s great to be around him. He can shoot the lights out of the ball. Very great passer. He pushes the pace for us, so it’s gonna be great to play with him.”

And while Butler said there was plenty of talk coming from Kriisa on the court, he pushed back on the narrative that his new teammate is always in other players’ faces.

“You know what? He doesn’t talk trash unless you talk to him. That’s his thing,” Butler said. “He won’t start it off, but if someone else starts it, then he’s gonna get into it. I don’t talk trash, so we never really had anything. …

“He’s really a nice guy. He’s really a cool guy. I mean, it’s just — when he turns up, he turns up.”

Maybe there’s a misconception out there about him?

“I think so a little bit,” Butler said. “I feel like I had that, before I really knew him and met him. But he’s really a good guy. He just goes out there and competes at a high level.”

Kriisa showed some of that more personal side Thursday.

He lit up at the mention of Robinson enjoying listening to his stories from back home. He said the thing he missed most was his grandparents’ cooking. He asked the reporters surrounding him for Lexington restaurant recommendations, making sure a UK basketball official nearby was taking note of them.

Kriisa also said he received some bad news just last month — word from home that a close family member was sick. He was grateful his “second family” in Lexington — his new teammates and coaches — were there for support.

“It means so much when you have guys that care,” Kriisa said. “... It just means so much that everybody’s here for me. And it’s special to have this kind of a bond that quick. I got good guys on my team. I really do.”

And even those who have been victims of Kriisa’s verbal jabs in the past feel the same about him.

“He’s been incredible,” Fueger said. “He’s a fighter. He wants to win. He’s going to make our players better. And that’s the sign of a really good player. And he’s so confident. And he’s been so much fun to be around. He wants to win so bad.

“He’s going to have his best year this year. And he’s going to be taunting everybody at all times. It’s gonna be awesome.”

Asked if the UK coaching staff would be OK with all that taunting, Fueger leaned forward. He was beaming.

“Oh, I love it. I love it. And Coach Pope’s gonna be like, ‘I want more. I want more .’ So it’s gonna be awesome.”

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