If Big East players were mixed into a pool and the league’s coaches had to draft their teams, a number of them have made it clear that UConn captain Alex Karaban would be high up on their draft boards.
NBA general managers might be starting to think the same way.
Amidst the most efficient season of his career, the Huskies’ 6-foot-8 redshirt-senior forward finds himself just on the edge of the 50/40/90 club after the first 13 games before the holiday break. A weight lifted off his shoulders with a loaded roster around him, Karaban has gotten back to the impact player he was on the 2023 and ’24 national championship teams, only better.
With the Huskies coming out of the break at 12-1, the fourth-ranked team in the nation, Karaban is averaging 13.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game and shooting 52.4% from the field, 43.9% from 3 and 87% from the free throw line.
Sean Miller, who is no longer a Big East coach since he left Xavier for Texas this year, has long sung Karaban’s praises.
“It’s a big reason why I wanted to go to Texas, to try to see if we can compete for the top prize in our game. When you do that, you have to get a guy like Alex Karaban,” Miller said after his Longhorns fell to the Huskies earlier this year. “I think there’s a lot of amazing things that Danny (Hurley) and his staff have done under their direction, building UConn into what it is today, but I don’t think there’s been one decision any bigger than getting Alex Karaban. … He’s just a winner and he fits their system so well that there’s just a lot of things that they can do because of his uniqueness.”
Deciding to come back for a fourth full year at UConn, Karaban opted against going into the NBA Draft, where he could’ve been selected in the second round in either of the last two years. In the latest mock drafts, that still seems to be the case.
Jonathan Wasserman’s latest mock for Bleacher Report has Karaban going No. 38 overall to the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder as the second Husky selected, following freshman Braylon Mullins at No. 16 overall to the Atlanta Hawks. ESPN’s latest big board rankings, from Jeremy Woo, have Mullins at No. 10, Karaban at No. 35, Eric Reibe at No. 37, Solo Ball at No. 53 and Tarris Reed Jr. at No. 70.
But Jonathan Givony, the former ESPN draft analyst, recently made the case on the Kevin O’Connor Show that Karaban might be the “most slept-on prospect” in the draft class.
“I think that Alex Karaban is hiding in plain sight right now,” Givony said. “I’ve been out to see UConn several times and every single time I’ve been blown away at just the feel for the game that Alex Karaban has, how much he’s improved as a perimeter shooter, the way he impacts the game defensively. He’s sneaky long, 6-11 wingspan, 6-foot-8, he doesn’t have the best body, he’s not the best mover, but he’s always in the right spots, he’s a great passer. The guy’s won so many games. People are gonna look past him a little bit because he’s 23 years old and he’s not the most athletic guy out there, but I think Alex Karaban is a lock to have a great NBA career, I think he’s gonna be in the NBA for 10 or 12 years. I have him in my top-20 right now.”
“He’s just such a winner, man,” O’Connor said on the podcast. “I mean, he can fill so many different roles, they use him in the post, they use him from 3, I just feel like there’s a versatility in the NBA as well that he brings. He largely will be a guy that hits spot-up jumpers and attacks closeouts, but there’s more to him, I think he can do more than just be a role guy.”
Entering the new year, Karaban is the top-rated player in the Big East by EvanMiya.com’s Bayesian Performance Rating, which combines both offensive and defensive metrics. UConn has the top-three players in the league by that metric with Silas Demary Jr. and Tarris Reed Jr. coming in at No. 2 and 3.
