INDIANAPOLIS — When Braylon Mullins gave up the ball, he didn’t expect to get it back.
The UConn freshman guard had dished it to 6-foot-8 senior forward Alex Karaban. There were four seconds remaining and the Huskies trailed Duke 72-70 with a spot in the Final Four hanging in the balance. Most players in Karaban’s position — and of Karaban’s caliber — would have hunted for a shot. Not the Huskies’ captain.
Karaban took a quick glance at the clock, then calmly fed it back to Mullins, who had sprung free beside him. “For some reason, I had the gut instinct to pass it to him,” Karaban said. “I had Cameron Boozer in front of me, which was a more difficult shot.”
It was, of course, the right play — and it resulted in one of the greatest March Madness moments of all time. Mullins’ miracle heave will go down in NCAA Tournament history, but the pass that set it up also deserves its shine. What’s more, the sequence was only made possible because Karaban nailed a clutch three 50 seconds earlier. Before he let the shot fly, he was 1 of 9 from the field and 0 of 5 from behind the arc.
The final minute of UConn’s Elite Eight victory over Duke was a perfect snapshot of what makes Karaban such a unique player: He is college basketball’s ultimate winner. In his fourth season as a starter under coach Dan Hurley, Karaban has a chance to become the first player since the 1970s to win three national championships. He is the only player this century to go 17-1 over an 18-game span in the NCAA Tournament and holds the UConn records for wins (125), threes (288), games played (149) and minutes logged (4,831). “This man’s greatness and what he’s done in college basketball for four years, literally (every) outlet should be doing a story on this man and his career in college,” said Hurley. “No one’s been better in college sports the last four years in terms of being a winner.”
Braylon Mullins Sends UConn to the Final Four With One of the Greatest Shots in March Madness History
Mullins’ miracle three-pointer delivered the Huskies an unforgettable 73-72 win over Duke in the Elite Eight
If there is a big play to make in UConn’s national semifinal game against Illinois on Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium, chances are Karaban will be the one to make it. UConn is widely viewed as an underdog amid the juggernauts in this year’s Final Four, but with Karaban in the mix, the program always seems to find a way to win.
“When I watch him, there’s this level of calm that I feel because I know he’s lurking,” Andrew Gale, Karaban’s former high school coach at New Hampton in New Hampshire, told Hoops HQ. “There’s this sense of like, okay, where’s the play that AK is going to make? It’s out there, and he’s about to make it. He’s going to show up at the right moment at the right time.”
It’s on temporary hiatus during the NCAA Tournament, but several of the UConn players and staff engage in a very serious dynasty league in the EA Sports video game College Football 26. There are eight participants in total, most of whom play with Big Ten teams. The goal is to build one’s program up over time — they are currently in the year 2036 — and try to collect as many national titles as possible. “All you have to know is that I have the most Heismans and the most national championships for my program,” said Karaban, who plays with Northwestern. “So you can decide who the best is from there.”
Indeed, Karaban has five national championships with his Wildcats, two more than the second-place program (senior guard Alec Millender has three with Indiana). Unsurprisingly, Karaban is just as competitive with a controller as he is with a basketball. “His favorite chant is, ‘N-O-R-T-H-W-E-S-T-E-R-N, go Northwestern go!’” Millender said with a laugh. “He yells that every time he scores a touchdown. I hate it.”
Whatever he’s doing, Karaban has to win — that’s the way it has always been. According to his parents, Alexei and Olga, Alex despised losing even as a kid growing up in Southborough, Massachusetts. “He wanted to win every single game,” Olga told Hoops HQ. “Even board games!”
In everyday life, Karaban is rather quiet and reserved. He can also be a bit goofy. During competitions, though, he assumes the complete opposite persona: Loud, intense, stoic. The transition is jarring. As Hurley explained, “Alex is pretty introverted, except when basketball starts. Then he becomes an extrovert.”
Gale recalled one night during Karaban’s high school days when the New Hampton team held a three-point contest in front of the entire school. Karaban was joking around with his teammates and friends until it was his turn to shoot. Then the smile disappeared from his face. “He just put on this huge show,” Gale said. “And then as soon as it was over, he was back to laughing.”
Or there was the time Karaban severely broke his nose in the late stages of a game and begged Gale to put him back in. Karaban’s nose was literally crooked, so Gale had to refuse. After a late visit to the emergency room, Karaban overnighted a mask to ensure that he could practice the following afternoon.
At UConn practices, Karaban’s fiery side often emerges. Less than two weeks ago, he dunked on 7-foot-1 center Eric Reibe amid a scrimmage. To cap the highlight, Karaban glared at the freshman big man before grabbing the ball and throwing it at him.
Even when he’s not in winning or “assassin” mode, as Gale put it, Karaban is preparing for those moments. He is consumed with the game, doing everything he can to gain an edge. In that way, he is very similar to his coach. “When we’re driving our cars, 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,” Hurley said about him and Karaban. “We just obsess over our love of the game and the team.”
That obsession is evident in Karaban’s work ethic. According to teammates, he basically lives at the practice facility . He is diligent about taking care of his body, frequently getting in the cold tub after the Huskies return from games late in the evening, and has picked up rituals such as meditation to ensure he’s at his best mentally. “He’s one of the hardest working people I’ve met by far,” said junior guard Jayden Ross.
Still, when Gale thinks about what makes Karaban the ultimate winner, the first word that pops to mind is “humility.” Despite his resume and that he is a legitimate NBA prospect, Karaban doesn’t demand to be the centerpiece. His stats have been virtually identical for the past three seasons (13.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists over that span). This year, he is averaging just 10.1 field goal attempts, which ranks 507th in Division I. There have been games where Karaban takes just six shots, and games like UConn’s Round of 32 win over UCLA in which he registered 27 points. “You would think if you have two national championships that you’d want to shoot every shot,” said junior forward Jaylin Stewart. “But that’s not the case at all. That just speaks to the type of person he is.”
If the moment calls for him to score, then Karaban looks to score.
If it calls for him to pass the ball to Mullins, then he passes the ball to Mullins.
“It’s just making the right play and the unselfish play,” said Gale. “And the kid who made the shot is from Indiana. I know that was in the back of (Karaban’s) mind when he made that play. It’s not about Alex Karaban winning the game. It’s about UConn winning the game and moving on. It’s almost like he wrote the story when he made that pass.”
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