Hours after UConn gained its fifth nationwide title — the primary of the Dan Hurley period — Alex Karaban made a bold suggestion in the team’s locker room. The Huskies had been celebrating, alums like Emeka Okafor, Ray Allen and Rudy Gay included.
Donovan Clingan, having simply concluded his freshman season, was already speaking about what the subsequent season might convey. That identical Clingan was on the radar of NBA groups, however maybe not fairly but prepared for the league and definitely having fun with the environment and feeling of getting simply gained a nationwide title absolutely restored life again into this UConn program.
“Hell yeah,” Karaban stated. “I’m talking to (Clingan), maybe we can pull off some Breanna Stewart 4-for-4 (national titles). That’s gonna be damn near impossible, but you’ve got to dream big in this program.”
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Dream large in 2023, he did.
The Huskies, after all, did run it again for a second championship. And whereas they fell brief in 2025, Karaban remains to be right here and on Monday evening has the possibility to do one thing unprecedented within the fashionable period: leave college with three national titles in four years.
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It hasn’t been achieved since a few UCLA gamers achieved the feat in 1973. In an period of early school departures for the NBA, the switch portal, and identify, picture and likeness, most would not even dream up the likelihood.
But Karaban has been the fixed within the Hurley period, having joined the group within the spring of 2022 on a redshirt. He got here off the bench in his first recreation of the 2022-23 season, Samson Johnson acquired damage and Karaban has began each recreation he was eligible for since. He not too long ago handed Johnson for many wins in a UConn profession and on Saturday tied Hurley’s brother Bobby for second-most NCAA Tournament wins in males’s school basketball historical past.
“You dream of being on this stage one time, and to be heading into it for a third time, it’s a blessing,” Karaban stated Sunday. “It’s the reason why I came back. It’s the reason why I’ve had extremely hard decisions to make throughout my career. I’ve always wanted to come back to win, to win championships, and to leave a legacy that’s unmatched in college basketball.”
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WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 29: Head coach Dan Hurley of the UConn Huskies celebrates with Alex Karaban #11 after a 73-72 victory in opposition to the Duke Blue Devils throughout the Elite Eight spherical recreation of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament held at Capital One Arena on March 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/NCAA Photos through Getty Images)
It can be tough to think about anybody matching three titles in a university profession. Karaban, the group chief, naturally shifted the eye although as he addressed the media.
“To have these four guys along with other amazing guys in the locker room as teammates throughout this year or years past has allowed me to have the second most wins in NCAA history and in the tournament,” he stated. “It’s all a blessing. It’s something that hasn’t really felt real during this entire journey. Just enjoying every moment, not taking it for granted, but knowing how special it is to win it all.”
The success would not occur accidentally. It takes a coach and a workers with imaginative and prescient. It takes discovering the fitting items and motivating these items. And generally it takes discovering the fitting go, as Karaban did final week in tossing the ball to freshman Braylon Mullins, who chucked it up from 35 toes away to sink a game-winning buzzer beater over Duke to clinch an Elite Eight win.
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UConn’s Alex Karaban speaks throughout a press convention because the Huskies put together for the NCAA Final Four nationwide title recreation at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind., Sunday, April 5, 2026.
Hurley has credited Karaban along with his management not simply within the locker room, however throughout on (and off) campus.
“It’s like hiring a babysitter for your team,” Hurley stated Friday. “He just babysits your team for four-and-a-half years. I mean, he’s been the best babysitter. I guess now we’re paying him in NIL. I mean, he babysits them. He’s the greatest problem solver you’ll ever have in practice, in game, and then, like, the tone he sets for your culture with his work habits, the peer pressure that that puts on everyone in the organization when your best player works as hard as he does, it just puts enormous pressure on everyone to stay out of Ted’s at night, which is a bar on campus, and to be in the gym shooting.”
Karaban has gone chilly within the match, as he generally has throughout his profession. The all-time chief in 3-pointers for UConn scored 9 factors Saturday vs. Illinois, however shot 1-for-8 from the sector, together with 1-for-7 from the 3-point line. But he did contribute, sinking all six free throws, meting out 4 assists and grabbing 4 rebounds. His worth, as Hurley notes, goes nicely past what reveals up within the field rating, just like the 6-foot-8 senior taking part in robust protection in opposition to a tall Illinois lineup.
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WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 29: Alex Karaban #11 of the UConn Huskies cuts down the online after a 73-72 victory in opposition to the Duke Blue Devils throughout the Elite Eight spherical recreation of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament held at Capital One Arena on March 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brett Wilhelm/NCAA Photos through Getty Images)
Monday’s nationwide championship recreation vs. Michigan presents a brand new sequence of challenges: dimension, pace, taking pictures. The Wolverines dismantled Arizona Saturday evening to the purpose Hurley has likened them to the Monstars from Space Jam. He’ll want Karaban, amongst others to step up.
“We’re not going to get away with that on Monday night,” he stated. “We’ve got to have a really good night shooting the ball on Monday.”
