Hours after UConn won its fifth national title — the first of the Dan Hurley era — Alex Karaban made a bold suggestion in the team’s locker room. The Huskies were celebrating, alums like Emeka Okafor, Ray Allen and Rudy Gay included.
Donovan Clingan, having just concluded his freshman season, was already talking about what the next season could bring. That same Clingan was on the radar of NBA teams, but perhaps not quite yet ready for the league and certainly enjoying the atmosphere and feeling of having just won a national title fully restored life back into this UConn program.
“Hell yeah,” Karaban said. “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 big in 2023, he did.
The Huskies, of course, did run it back for a second championship. And while they fell short in 2025, Karaban is still here and on Monday night has the chance to do something unheard of in the modern era: leave college with three national titles in four years.
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It hasn’t been done since a couple of UCLA players accomplished the feat in 1973. In an era of early college departures for the NBA, the transfer portal, and name, image and likeness, most wouldn’t even dream up the possibility.
But Karaban has been the constant in the Hurley era, having joined the team in the spring of 2022 on a redshirt. He came off the bench in his first game of the 2022-23 season, Samson Johnson got hurt and Karaban has started every game he was eligible for since. He recently passed Johnson for most wins in a UConn career and on Saturday tied Hurley’s brother Bobby for second-most NCAA Tournament wins in men’s college basketball history.
“You dream of being on this stage one time, and to be heading into it for a third time, it’s a blessing,” Karaban said 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 against the Duke Blue Devils during the Elite Eight round game 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 via Getty Images)
It would be difficult to imagine anyone matching three titles in a college career. Karaban, the team leader, naturally shifted the attention though 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 said. “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 doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a coach and a staff with vision. It takes finding the right pieces and motivating those pieces. And sometimes it takes finding the right pass, as Karaban did last week in tossing the ball to freshman Braylon Mullins, who chucked it up from 35 feet 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 during a press conference as the Huskies prepare for the NCAA Final Four national title game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind., Sunday, April 5, 2026.
Hurley has credited Karaban with his leadership not just in the locker room, but all over on (and off) campus.
“It’s like hiring a babysitter for your team,” Hurley said 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 cold in the tournament, as he sometimes has during his career. The all-time leader in 3-pointers for UConn scored nine points Saturday vs. Illinois, but shot 1-for-8 from the field, including 1-for-7 from the 3-point line. But he did contribute, sinking all six free throws, dishing out four assists and grabbing four rebounds. His value, as Hurley notes, goes well beyond what shows up in the box score, like the 6-foot-8 senior playing strong defense against a tall Illinois lineup.
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WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 29: Alex Karaban #11 of the UConn Huskies cuts down the net after a 73-72 victory against the Duke Blue Devils during the Elite Eight round game 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 via Getty Images)
Monday’s national championship game vs. Michigan presents a new series of challenges: size, speed, shooting. The Wolverines dismantled Arizona Saturday night to the point Hurley has likened them to the Monstars from Space Jam. He’ll need Karaban, among others to step up.
“We’re not going to get away with that on Monday night,” he said. “We’ve got to have a really good night shooting the ball on Monday.”
