The Athletic has dwell protection of Tennessee vs. Michigan and UConn vs. Duke within the March Madness Elite Eight.
WASHINGTON — Stationed nearer to the center-court emblem than the 3-point line, Alex Karaban took the kick-out move from Tarris Reed Jr. and by no means hesitated.
The loonnggg jumper gave UConn a 4-point lead Friday on Michigan State with about a minute and half left within the East Regional semifinal, serving to the Huskies stand up to 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 mentioned after the victory. “You can only do it with older players at this stage of the tournament.”
With the versatile and regular Karaban main the best way in each approach, the Huskies are a victory from a third Final Four in 4 seasons. Second-seeded UConn meets top-seeded Duke on Sunday in a matchup of the 2 most adorned applications of the previous 35 years. Between them, the Huskies and Blue Devils have received 11 nationwide titles since 1990.
In his fifth season in Storrs, Karaban has gone from glue man on back-to-back nationwide championship groups to main man for the Huskies and a proxy for Hurley on the court docket and within the locker room.
For a program that celebrates Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Kemba Walker, Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor amongst its all-time greats, Karaban could make a reliable declare to being probably the most completed males’s basketball participant in UConn historical past. A four-year starter, no person has performed in additional UConn victories (124) than Karaban, and solely two gamers (former Duke stars Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley) in faculty basketball historical past have received extra NCAA Tournament video games than his 16.
This UConn group just isn’t the wrecking ball Hurley’s 2023 and 2024 NCAA champions had been. These Huskies should beat the chances to win all of it, but when they do, Karaban would develop into the primary participant to win three NCAA titles since members of John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty within the Sixties and ’70s.
“I feel the most confident I’ve felt my entire career, just riding the hot hand I have right now,” Karaban mentioned 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 little bit of a unicorn in immediately’s faculty basketball, with the switch portal sending gamers this fashion and that, turning and churning rosters. He was one in every of solely 5 high-major Division I gamers this season who had been four-year starters on the identical faculty, together 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 mentioned. “He’s such a winning player. You can tell he’s all about the right stuff and makes everybody better on the floor.”
The man Hurley and Huskies name Cap (brief for captain) was a part of the group of gamers in Hurley’s first two recruiting courses, together with Andre Jackson Jr., Adama Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins, who led the revival of UConn basketball. The Huskies received only one NCAA Tournament sport between the 2014 nationwide title sport and the beginning of Hurley’s first championship run in 2023.
The 6-foot-8 Karaban needed to develop into this function. It didn’t 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 mentioned.
He has come a very great distance 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 mentioned. “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 professional future is not any assure, however together with his measurement, savvy and capturing contact (he’s UConn’s profession chief in 3s made) it might be stunning if he had no NBA profession. Hurley repeatedly calls him a future NBA participant and believes all that he has requested of Karaban has ready 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 mentioned.
Hurley’s playbook is understood for being one of the crucial expansive in faculty basketball. It will be a lot for gamers to soak up.
“AK knows everything. He knows all the plays, all the terminology that Hurley has, he tries to give us,” Malachi Smith mentioned. “He’s basically under Hurley, just like a second coach on the floor.”
Jaylin Stewart, a 6-7 junior, mentioned his frequent apply matchups with Karaban have helped him see the sport in another way.
“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 mentioned.
Just as useful is Karaban’s function as a Hurley translator for the gamers who haven’t been across the fiery and demanding coach as lengthy.
“He’s done a great job multiple times, just making sure I got the message instead of the tone,” Smith mentioned.
Both Karaban and Hurley see one another as kindred spirits, with very totally 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 mentioned.
Hurley known as Karaban a “calming influence” after the Michigan State sport, a deadpan joke that didn’t completely land within the information convention room.
“How he’s similar?” Hurley mentioned 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.”
