The list of all-time great college basketball players that have made their mark on the UConn men’s program feels endless.
Ray Allen. Ben Gordon. Richard Hamilton. Donyell Marshall. Emeka Okafor. Caron Butler. Kemba Walker. Shabazz Napier. Donovan Clingan.
They transformed the Huskies into a national powerhouse that competes with the bluebloods year in and year out. It’s a pantheon reserved for the few, and one Alex Karaban managed to open the door to, walk right in and introduce himself.
The stats for Karaban, a 6-foot-8 redshirt senior forward with two national championships already under his belt, might not compare to those legends. But when it comes to the most important statistic a player can have, he outdid Allen, Okafor, Walker and any other UConn star that came before him.
Winning is what cements Karaban among the UConn greats and with a 79-75 win for the Huskies last month at Georgetown, Karaban became the program’s all-time winningest player.
“It’s crazy,” said Karaban, who is now on win No. 119 and counting. “I don’t think I’ve reflected on it as much as I probably should have. I think when my career is over at UConn, I think I’ll be able to reflect on it more and just realize how special that is to be in a category like them. But I think right now, I just want to add more to my resume and add more to my career to really solidify my spot in that category.”
The history of the storied UConn program and the company Karaban finds himself in is not lost on the 23-year-old.
Karaban grew up in Southboro, Mass., just an hour away from the Storrs, Conn., campus. He remembers watching Jim Calhoun preside over the program and the Huskies embarking on deep tournament runs that ended with them hoisting the coveted hardware skyward.
The prestige of the program lured Karaban to UConn, and kept him there, too.
After winning back-to-back national titles during his first two seasons on the court, he entered his name into the NBA draft. He went to the NBA combine and had a good chance to be drafted and have the same fate as four of his teammates in the 2024 draft.
But in late May, he withdrew his name from the draft. He went through a similar process last spring, yet again withdrawing his name from consideration, feeling like he still had more left to do at UConn.
“Just chase history, continue to win national championships, wanting to win more and really just try to play under Coach (Dan) Hurley for as long as possible,” Karaban said. “Realizing how great of an opportunity I had and really just wanting to maximize my entire career at UConn. And really just do something that you don’t really see in college basketball anymore, which is stay at a program for four years without transferring and really cement yourself in a program.”
It’s only natural for Karaban to think about the alternative after choosing UConn over the NBA. He tries not to gaze into the crystal ball too often, though, and think about what could have been.
“I think there’s moments where it’s like, ‘What if I did stay in the NBA draft and how different my life would be,’” Karaban said. “Who knows what would have happened. I try to stay away from that. But here and there, I think you could always play the what-if game.”
Staying at UConn allowed Karaban to keep etching his name in the record books.
In the same game against Georgetown, Karaban made his 136th career start, a program record. It had been over three years since Karaban made his first start in a Huskies uniform, one that took him by surprise.
But Hurley trusted the redshirt freshman enough to put him with the starting unit in the second game of the 2022-23 season against Boston University. Karaban totaled 10 points, four rebounds and four assists and the end result was the same for UConn like the countless other times Karaban took the floor: the Huskies came out on top.
“I was nervous. I think the only thing that helped me was it was my birthday,” said Karaban about the start against BU. “I had such a high adrenaline rush and really was just so excited to be out there. Just the excitement that you get when you hear your name announced, just everything surrounding it, especially at the college level, was super exciting for me. I was shocked that I started as a freshman, but I also saw it as an opportunity to keep my starting spot.”
Karaban certainly didn’t relinquish that starting spot once he earned it. He started 77 of the next 78 games over his first two seasons.
Starting games is old hat for him now, and those nerves he felt against BU don’t appear anymore. Karaban, who is averaging 13.3 points while shooting 41.5% from 3-point range to go along with 5.2 rebounds this season, is just trying to make the most of his time left at UConn.
He sure did that Saturday in his final game at Gampel Pavilion. Karaban, who became the first active player enshrined in the Huskies of Honor prior to the game, marked the occasion by tying his season high with 23 points in a 71-67 win over Seton Hall.
“I just want to savor every moment and just really enjoy every second that I have, knowing that it is my last year and I (only) have so many more games with this UConn crowd,” Karaban said. “Just really trying to embrace every moment, enjoy it and just try to put on my best effort every single night.”
There’s no doubt Karaban left his mark on UConn, like the greats that came before him. He lived up to the standard, was a torchbearer for the tradition and passed it on to the next round of Huskies stars.
He will leave the program with two rings and possibly a third national title coming this spring. And he has all those wins that became synonymous with his play.
And there’s really no better way to be remembered than for that.
“At the end of the day, everyone, when you play basketball or a sport at any level, you want to win, and to have my name associated with winning, I think there’s no better honor than that,” Karaban said. “Something I’m proud of, something I’ll forever be proud of and something that no one can take away.”
