'Everyone owes everything to that guy': Alex Karaban's final shot for UConn

INDIANAPOLIS — Alex Karaban had played 39 minutes and 43 seconds when he rose and fired from deep late Monday. Connecticut, clearly not the better team on the floor in the national title game, had fought and clawed and fouled and still had one prayer left.

The Huskies had cut Michigan’s lead to four on a Solo Ball 3-pointer 20 seconds earlier. Michigan’s Roddy Gayle Jr. had missed two free throws. If Karaban, owner of two national title rings and the only four-year UConn player on the Huskies’ roster, could sink this shot, it might set up something even more miraculous than the Elite Eight comeback against Duke that sent UConn to the Final Four.

Not all prayers get answered, though. 

This one clanged off the rim. Michigan’s Trey McKenney grabbed the rebound. Maize and blue confetti fell a few moments later. Karaban had played every second.

“Let me play him into the ground one more time, just one more 40-minute game for Alex,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “Let me just play that guy into the ground one more night like I have throughout his career. He deserved to play 40 minutes.”

If that shot had fallen and if the miracle had happened, Huskies players and coaches would have said exactly the same things about Karaban that they said after the shot missed. The coaches have known him for four years. He is the rarity in the transfer portal/NIL world — a top-150 recruit who chooses a school and stays there his entire career.

“I’m blessed that I’ve been able to wear this jersey for the longest amount of time possible, the max amount of minutes, the max amount of games this season,” Karaban said.

His teammates have known him for one, two or three years. Even the shortest of those intervals was long enough to understand how much Karaban gave to a program that was still trying to find its way when he committed on Aug. 22, 2021. One shot wasn’t going to change how anyone felt.

Hurley had given his “people better get us now” speech 19 months earlier, but people didn’t need to truly worry until Karaban joined an already stacked roster in the fall of 2022. He was the final piece that unlocked a championship program.  

Karaban wasn’t a star immediately. You could argue he never was the star for UConn. But he was a critical starter for a team that won a surprising national title as a freshman. As a sophomore, he became a double-digit scorer for a team that pretty much smashed everything in its path and won an expected national title. Karaban and the Huskies lost by two in the round of 32 to eventual national champ Florida last year, and he thought about leaving for the NBA. But his draft projection hovered between the first and second rounds, so he returned.

“I came back ultimately to win,” Karaban said. “Fell short.”

No UConn teammate will ever accuse Karaban of falling short. “I might cry up here just talking about just the impact he’s had, in the locker room, throughout every single practice, every single game,” UConn guard Solo Ball said. “He’s just always there, and he’s the same person every single day. He doesn’t change.”

Said teammate Tarris Reed Jr.: “He’s like the most passionate, competitive, loyal person I’ve ever met. Just the love he has for the game, the love he has for us, just a leader. I’ve never met a person like AK that shows up every day despite good game, bad game, bad day, good day. Getting yelled at by coach, getting yelled at by us. But he’s an everyday guy, honest guy who’s going to show up whenever for his team. Like it showed tonight. He gave it his all and just has a true heart of a champion.”

Maybe in a few years Karaban will understand exactly what he did that will etch his name alongside names like Ray Allen and Kemba Walker. Or maybe he understands it now.

“It hurts right now. It hurts a lot right now,” Karaban said. “I’m just reminding myself right now that [from] when I came into UConn how much I’ve grown, and I’m ultimately leaving UConn in a better place right now from where I started. I gave it everything I’ve got. I gave it my heart. I gave everything. All I thought about was UConn basketball every single day.”

That’s why Hurley worried he might cry as he tried to put into words what Karaban meant to the program. But the coach found the perfect ones.

“He’s put UConn in that rarefied place in college basketball,” Hurley said. “Everyone owes everything to that guy.”