LAWRENCE, Kan. – In the back of his mind on Tuesday night, Alex Karaban said he was thinking about beating Kansas for the 2023-24 national championship team, which suffered its first of only three losses during a historic season inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Same for Dan Hurley?
“Not for one second,” the UConn coach said. “They’re all doing great. We went back-to-back with that team, that team won the Big East championship in the regular season, Big East Tournament, destroyed everyone in the NCAA Tournament, they’re all flourishing in the NBA. I couldn’t care less about avenging their loss here. Everything’s going great for them.”
For Karaban and Solo Ball, the only two returning starters from that game two years ago to the day, it was about having the resiliency to come into a raucous environment like Kansas has at Allen Fieldhouse and rendering it eerily quiet after the final buzzer.
The contingent of UConn fans and families was patient in leaving and made sure to bellow a few UConn chants before they did. There were a few, specifically in the second half, that weren’t immediately drowned out by the high-decibel KU crowd.
UConn held the Jayhawks to only five made field goals on 20 attempts after going into the break trailing, 33-29. The game played out similarly to how it did in the 2023-24 season with the Huskies coming back to take a lead well into the second half. Only this time, a much healthier group (despite still missing Tarris Reed Jr.) held on for a 61-56 victory behind the efforts of Ball, freshmen Braylon Mullins and Eric Reibe, and Karaban, who scored nine of his 11 points in the second half.
No. 5 UConn men’s basketball holds on in thriller at Allen Fieldhouse for first-ever win over Kansas
It was the program’s first win over Kansas in five all-time meetings.
“I think having played here before, I was able to kind of know what to expect. And this still is the hardest place I’ve ever played in my college career, so I knew that going in I was mentally prepared for that and I think the experience really helped me out, just making sure the group stayed together throughout the entire game, through all the adversity and not really getting too rattled by the runs that Kansas made,” Karaban said. “To get this back for the ’24 team and to make history with this team for UConn this year, and get that little revenge for those guys in ’24 that I love, it’s special.”
UConn, 3-1 against ranked teams thus far, has two more high-major games on its loaded nonconference schedule and will look to match the 11-1 record it took into Big East play during that championship season. After one final buy game against East Texas A&M on Friday, the Huskies have a chance to avenge last year’s team as they meet reigning national champion Florida at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 9 before closing the slate with Texas coming to Hartford.
But Tuesday’s win over the Jayhawks is one of a few things never been done before at UConn that can define a season. And the Huskies, even without their star center, showed they have the pieces to make another run.
“For me, this was about this team,” Hurley said. “When you’re a UConn team, this year’s team, and you’re in the building and you see the banners and you see the coaches wearing ‘back-to-back’ sweatshirts, and now you’re on this team, this year, it’s: for your team, start building your resume. These guys should get tired of hearing about the ’24 team and be like, ‘Yo, this ’26 team did something that the ’24 team never did. And we want to accomplish things that the ’24 team couldn’t.’ So I think the team should be more competitive, like, we want to do things that the ’24 team couldn’t do. That’s my mindset.”
Reed remains game-to-game
When UConn played at Kansas in December, 2023, the Huskies were without the future No. 4 overall NBA Draft pick, Steph Castle, and had the No. 7 overall pick, Donovan Clingan, playing through a foot injury and Cam Spencer, the 53rd overall pick in the same draft, playing through turf toe. Hurley only used seven players in the game.
Reed, while he makes a massive difference, was the only Husky out on Tuesday as the ankle injury he suffered against BYU continues to linger. He did return and play 15 minutes in the top-15 win over Illinois on Black Friday, but didn’t look like himself.
UConn announced he wouldn’t be available about three hours before tip-off, about five hours after Kansas announced it would be without star freshman Darryn Peterson for the seventh game in a row.
“It’s the way he came out of the (Illinois) game, just how he was feeling, the way he felt the last couple of days,” Hurley said. “Tarris has got to get himself healthy and he’s gotta get on the court.”
Reibe, starting in his place, had another impressive game as he finished with 12 points (6 of 8 shooting), eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Never Stop?
The Kansas students began multiple “(Bleep) Dan Hurley!” chants during the game, to the point where coach Bill Self said to “knock it off” and an announcement came on the PA to respect the Big 12 code of conduct.
For a place like KU, with all of its incredible, cult-like, organized chants, it was a bit surprising.
“I wasn’t expecting that. Everyone was so nice to me the last time. I don’t really have anything. If that’s how people want to carry themselves in the game, it’s sports. We’re all (bleepin’) gladiators,” Hurley said.
Later asked whether those chants have become white noise for him at this point in his career, Hurley joked: “Maybe they didn’t like the book. Maybe they bought ‘Never Stop’ and maybe they didn’t like the book.”
Notes
UConn improved to 26-11 against ranked opponents since the start of 2022-23 season, more ranked wins over that span than any other program. …Braylon Mullins, breaking out for 17 points in just his second college game, was the ninth different Husky to score in double figures this season. …UConn debuted new blue road throwback uniforms on Tuesday night. Karaban said they were his favorite and Hurley reported that they are the primary road uniforms “right now.” UConn posted a video of the 2004 Final Four game against Duke to tease the new uniforms. “Sorry to the people on social for the video we dropped that got people excited about potentially a Duke series in scheduling,” Hurley said. “I may take over creative control of all social because of that screw-up.”
