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WASHINGTON — Stationed closer to the center-court logo than the 3-point line, Alex Karaban took the kick-out pass from Tarris Reed Jr. and never hesitated.
The loonnggg jumper gave UConn a 4-point lead Friday on Michigan State with about a minute and half left in the East Regional semifinal, helping the Huskies withstand a late surge by the Spartans and advance to the Elite Eight.
“My message to him (was), if you’re going to go out in this tournament, you’ve got to go out on your shield. You’ve got to go out firing, or you’re going to have a lot of regrets,” coach Dan Hurley said after the victory. “You can only do it with older players at this stage of the tournament.”
With the versatile and steady Karaban leading the way in every way, the Huskies are a victory from a third Final Four in four seasons. Second-seeded UConn meets top-seeded Duke on Sunday in a matchup of the two most decorated programs of the past 35 years. Between them, the Huskies and Blue Devils have won 11 national titles since 1990.
In his fifth season in Storrs, Karaban has gone from glue guy on back-to-back national championship teams to leading man for the Huskies and a proxy for Hurley on the court and in the locker room.
For a program that celebrates Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Kemba Walker, Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor among its all-time greats, Karaban can make a legitimate claim to being the most accomplished men’s basketball player in UConn history. A four-year starter, nobody has played in more UConn victories (124) than Karaban, and only two players (former Duke stars Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley) in college basketball history have won more NCAA Tournament games than his 16.
This UConn team is not the wrecking ball Hurley’s 2023 and 2024 NCAA champions were. These Huskies will have to beat the odds to win it all, but if they do, Karaban would become the first player to win three NCAA titles since members of John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty in the 1960s and ’70s.
“I feel the most confident I’ve felt my entire career, just riding the hot hand I have right now,” Karaban said Saturday. “I feel coaches are putting me in great positions, teammates are having a lot of trust in me to take the shot.”
Karaban is a bit of a unicorn in today’s college basketball, with the transfer portal sending players this way and that, turning and churning rosters. He was one of only five high-major Division I players this season who were four-year starters at the same school, along with Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton, Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey and Purdue’s Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer.
“I have so much respect for Karaban and what he’s done in his career at UConn,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “He’s such a winning player. You can tell he’s all about the right stuff and makes everybody better on the floor.”
The guy Hurley and Huskies call Cap (short for captain) was part of the group of players in Hurley’s first two recruiting classes, along with Andre Jackson Jr., Adama Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins, who led the revival of UConn basketball. The Huskies won just one NCAA Tournament game between the 2014 national title game and the start of Hurley’s first championship run in 2023.
The 6-foot-8 Karaban had to grow into this role. It did not come naturally.
“I’m typically a quiet and shy kid, and I think over time, I’ve learned how to lead, how to be there for other people and really just try to support everybody,” Karaban said.
He has come a very long way from the gangly recruit from Massachusetts who arrived in Storrs.
“Alex is pretty introverted, except when basketball starts, and then he becomes an extrovert,” Hurley said. “There’s a metamorphosis with this guy. He starts out nerdy. You look at the first media pictures, like Ichabod Crane, Headless Horseman look about him, and now he’s all swagged out.”
Karaban’s pro future is no guarantee, but with his size, savvy and shooting touch (he is UConn’s career leader in 3s made) it would be surprising if he had no NBA career. Hurley repeatedly calls him a future NBA player and believes all that he has asked of Karaban has prepared him to get there.
“It’s the responsibility of his greatness, it’s the responsibility of being a senior and a two-time champion and one of the biggest winners in the history of this tournament,” Hurley said.
Hurley’s playbook is known for being one of the most expansive in college basketball. It can be a lot for players to absorb.
“AK knows everything. He knows all the plays, all the terminology that Hurley has, he tries to give us,” Malachi Smith said. “He’s basically under Hurley, just like a second coach on the floor.”
Jaylin Stewart, a 6-7 junior, said his frequent practice matchups with Karaban have helped him see the game differently.
“Simple things like not always having to use your athleticism to score a basket. Like you could see a guy probably helping a little too far and slip to the basket, instead of trying to use your strength to post them up, stuff like that. Just trying to outsmart your opponent. I think he’s taught me a lot about that,” Stewart said.
Just as valuable is Karaban’s role as a Hurley translator for the players who have not been around the fiery and demanding coach as long.
“He’s done a great job multiple times, just making sure I got the message instead of the tone,” Smith said.
Both Karaban and Hurley see each other as kindred spirits, with very different personalities.
“How we both take a loss as an example. It’s like, it’s extremely hard on us, and we both make it seem like the world is ending,” Karaban said.
Hurley called Karaban a “calming influence” after the Michigan State game, a deadpan joke that didn’t totally land in the news conference room.
“How he’s similar?” Hurley said Saturday. “When we’re driving our car, we’re thinking about basketball. When we’re in the shower, we’re thinking about basketball. When we’re sleeping and we wake up, we’re thinking about basketball. … We just obsess over the game, we obsess over our love of the game, of the team. We just obsess, and we share that obsession.”