With the weight of the world off his shoulders, UConn's Alex Karaban is ready to go all-in

Joe Arruda, Hartford Courant on Nov 1, 2025

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HARTFORD, Conn. — Alex Karaban just wanted to rip the band-aid off. Whatever decision he made this summer, he was going to be all in.

There was no waiting until the last minute to pull his name out of the NBA draft; he’d seen how that could play out. This time, the decision to return came a month earlier than it did the previous summer. In late February, after UConn lost six of 12 games, the captain felt the weight of the world on his shoulders and he could trace the adversity back to a summer he felt he didn’t maximize.

Days after UConn’s 14-point loss to St. John’s at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 23, Karaban sat down with coach Dan Hurley and reflected on the joyride that they’d been on the last two years. He was the only starter left from both national championship teams, sticking around in Storrs to carry the torch as so many of his teammates were thriving in the NBA. When he decided to return, many penciled the Huskies in as a real threat to become the first team to three-peat since the UCLA dynasty of the early 1970s.

But at the time, those chances were bleak.

“I went through a lot of lows last year,” he said in August, after spending a few weeks with UConn’s new, reloaded roster for this season. “Whether that was me being in the spotlight, whether it was me being the No. 1 guy on the scouting report. … I learned a lot about myself this past year and I’m excited to head into this year a lot stronger and just ready to really embrace what my role is supposed to be. Stronger physically, mentally, emotionally – literally everything that could be stronger.”

Karaban experienced more lows than he ever had in college, whether it was the concussion that nearly made him miss the team’s flight back from Maui or the two missed free throws at Villanova, when it felt as if fan bases across the country were reveling in his failure.

“There’s a mental toughness that you develop when you go through a year that we had as a team and a stretch that he went through that’s made him a lot tougher,” Hurley said. “The year before it’s like, you’re doing a lot of celebrating and he was deep into the pre-draft process, he didn’t have as much time to work on things and get back in the gym and put in the work on his body.”

Now?

“He looks like a man,” Hurley said, before Karaban put together 18 points in an exhibition win over preseason No. 22 Michigan State.

“Just the sharpness of his game, confidence. He’s done it all — been there, done that. I think going into his last year where he knows there’s finality, having experienced a tough year team-wise and we were able to get through it, he’s still positioned to be where he wants to be career-wise. … I just think his game, his skills, he’s very advanced and I think he looks like what was projected for him last year.”

The Huskies will no longer have to live or die with Karaban’s performances game-in and game-out. Hurley built a roster around him with other experienced players to distribute that weight more evenly, allowing Karaban to tie it all together the way depth complimented both the 2023 and 2024 championship teams.

“I think we played a team that’s one of the best movement teams, definitely that I’ve seen,” Michigan State’s Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo said after the exhibition. “Now (Hurley’s) got a couple more pieces that are very good to help him. Karaban, he moves as well without the ball as any player I’ve seen and I think he’s done a good job of getting that offense around him, but he can make a 3, can drive it, he doesn’t post you up a lot but he can hurt you in a lot of different ways.”

Pushing all of his chips into the center of the table, this offseason Karaban was more focused than ever on getting his body right, building muscle to where he can power to the rim and hold his own on the defensive end.

His battle scars have made him an even better leader for the group, serving as another coach on the court and helping his new teammates adjust to the winning culture he played a large part in building.

“He’s bigger, he’s stronger, he’s faster. Somehow shoots better. It’s crazy how each year he takes his game to a whole different level,” said senior center Tarris Reed Jr. “His composure, like honestly, you couldn’t even tell he wasn’t having the best year on the court (last year). He always kept himself at a high level, high standard, always kept his head held high and always worked. That dude’s a workaholic man, he works like no other.

“He’s always in the gym, always shooting, always getting up the extra reps. In practice he’s the first one to do every drill, first one laughing, competing, so that dude is just – he’s a guy you can get behind, a guy you could really go to war with.”