Alex Karaban's last journey with UConn through March Madness can take him into rare company

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As the 2026 edition of March Madness begins, there are two ways to look at the possibilities confronting Connecticut power forward Alex Karaban. He could be six wins away from joining one of the most exclusive fraternities in college basketball. Or he could be six wins away from starting his own.

It depends on how one does the accounting.

Of around 30,000 men who have competed in the NCAA Tournament, there have been 15 who claimed three championships during their careers. All of them played for John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins.

Which means by the night of April 6, Karaban could be in a league of his own.

It would be an astounding accomplishment to join those Bruins, considering the company he would keep; among that group are Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Lynn Shackelford, Henry Bibby and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. To be the only one who got there outside the Wooden dynasty, though, would make it even more extraordinary.

“That’s crazy,” Karaban told The Sporting News. “I knew it had to be a very short list, and I knew it had to be from the UCLA days ever since I decided to come back, but I think it’s just super cool. I really haven’t thought about it that much, just because I want to do it so badly. I have known the list is very short, and how special it could be.”

Karaban won his first title as a freshman starter on coach Dan Hurley’s 2022-23 team, which finished only fourth in the Big East but found a clear sense of itself in a narrow, mid-February road loss at Creighton and then won 12 of its final 13 games. Karaban averaged 9.3 points that season and held up well against the pressure of the postseason, scoring 11 points in a Sweet 16 win over Arkansas and 12 in the Elite Eight against Gonzaga.

A year later, he was playing 30 minutes a night during UConn’s rampage as one of the most dominant college teams of the 21^st century, delivering a 14-point, 8-rebound performance in the national semifinal victory over Alabama. The Huskies won that championship with all six victories by double-figure margins.

He considered leaving for the NBA after each of the past two seasons, once after adding the second ring to his collection and the second after a disappointing season that ended with a possibly inspiring second-round defeat to eventual champion Florida.

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Choosing to return was, in part, motivated by the possibility of winning a third.

“Absolutely. I want to leave a legacy at UConn, and winning a national championship is definitely doing that, possibly putting myself in an extremely rare category, by winning a third,” Karaban told SN. “That’s something that can’t be taken away from me. So that’s a goal. That’s what we’re striving for this year.”

Karaban committed to Connecticut in August 2021 as a four-star prospect rated No. 118 in the nation. He chose the school over Ohio State, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame, among others, in part because of UConn’s proximity to his home in Southborough, Mass. It has been an ideal fit. His family and friends easily have been able to drive the hour to home games, and he has provided a consistent “stretch 4” weapon for teams that have won 121 games and lost 27.

Karaban never has been a statistical superstar. He’s never averaged more than 14.3 points or 5.3 rebounds, but he’s been at least a 38 percent long-distance shooter and 47 percent shooter from the field in three of his four seasons. His consistency since arriving on campus, though, has been remarkable. Karaban has started 144 of 145 games. In a program that has been home to Rip Hamilton, Kemba Walker, Emeka Okafor, Ray Allen, Donyell Marshall and Shabazz Napier, Karaban is the career leader in victories. He was a first-team All-Big East selection this season.

In 2024-25, when Connecticut entered the season with a chance for history’s first three-peat since that UCLA dynasty, the Huskies struggled through much of the season because of inadequate point guard play and a defense that was uncommonly pliable. They ranked only 75^th in defensive efficiency at KenPom.com, compared to No. 7 and No. 4 in the championship years.

“I think last year, we just didn’t do what we were expected to do: offensively, defensively, we just didn’t play the UConn basketball you saw the previous two years. We just didn’t have the right makeup, and that cost us,” Karaban said. “We just weren’t defensively minded. We’ve always be tough defensively, and I think last year we just weren’t doing what we were expected to do.

“We’re taking more pride, realizing for the returners who were hear last year, how it cost us our goals. And it’s also bringing in guys like Silas Demery, Malachi Smith – especially Silas, his lead attack as a defender and how it’s changed our outlook defensively at the point guard position.”

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the first to win three NCAA championships as a player. Lynn Shackelford was a teammate on the Bruins’ 1967, 68 and 69 title teams, but Abdul-Jabbar – even when he was going by Lew Alcindor – was first in line alphabetically.

Also, he was the greatest player in the history of the college game.

Another dozen Bruins followed those two to triple-championship glory by 1973, when Larry Farmer and Larry Hollyfield claimed the last of theirs.

One of those players was Andy Hill, a 6-0 guard who never averaged more than 2.7 points but appeared in all three Final Fours during his career. He later wrote a book about his relationship with Wooden and became a highly successful executive in the entertainment business. His most lasting contribution to the sport was his introduction of the plus-minus statistic following his UCLA career.

“I guess all the guys in that group played for one guy. I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” Hill told SN. “It’s hard to do. It’s unbelievably hard to do. And seven in a row? It’s almost silly.

“I’m a spectator. I had the best seat in the house. I’m not sitting here saying I was … but what I also learned enough over time in organizations: Wow, I was on three championship teams. For anyone to be on three championship teams and be part of the group and practice every day and participate in the group dynamic that it takes to get to the finish line and win, everybody deserves a ring at that point.

“Obviously, this kid (Karaban) has had a spectacular career. I wish him all the luck.”

Since the UCLA dynasty ended in 1975 with Wooden’s 10^th title, there have been few players who even had the opportunity to take a run at a third championship ring.

After Duke won it in 1991 and 1992, stars Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill and regulars Thomas Hill and Marty Clark were together again in the 1992-93 season, That Blue Devils team earned a No. 3 NCAA seed and was upset in the second round by Jason Kidd and California.

Hurley also had a chance to get three rings had the Devils of his freshman year won when they reached the 1990 championship game against UNLV, but he was ill and the team was blown out by 30 points.

“After my first-year loss, in Denver, I wondered how we would get back again. But then I watched Grant Hill play pickup and I felt optimistic again,” Hurley told SN. “The Cal loss stung in the moment, coupled with the finality of my college career ending and knowing I would never play for Coach K again.

“With what I know now on the coaching, and how difficult is to win any game, an 18-2 record in the NCAA Tournament and two chips isn’t too shabby.”

Hill, Lang and Clark nearly got that third, returning to the championship game in 1994 after defeating Purdue and Glenn Robinson in the Elite Eight and Florida in the semifinals. Arkansas clinched a tight game with a late 3-pointer from guard Scotty Thurman that remains the most legendary play in Razorbacks basketball history.

Florida won consecutive titles, in 2006 and 2007, but guard Lee Humphrey was a senior, the junior frontcourt of Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer all left one season of eligibility unspent, and so did point guard Taurean Green. The only player who might have won three was guard Walter Hodge, but the Gators failed to reach the NCAAs in each of his final two seasons.

Until UConn went back-to-back in this decade, more champions failed to make the tournament the following season than returned to the Final Four (precisely none). Imagine how hard it is to get there and win three times.

Hill explained there was no “Super Bowl Hangover” for the Bruins when they were pursuing his third championship in 1971-72, because that was the year Bill Walton became eligible to take over at center.

“He was just a whirlwind," Hill said. "But the second time, my junior year, it was a little bit like that. We sort of slogged through the season, and guys were playing for pro contracts, and we won half the games in the last 2 or 3 minutes. Then, all of a sudden, it was, ‘Gosh, I guess we better play the way coach told us to play.’

“It’s hard to go after something as hard as you have to if you feel hung over. It’s an appropriate metaphor.”

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Because Karaban is the only on-court link to those two championship teams, UConn does not arrive to the tournament dealing with that sort of ennui. The Huskies just are trying to get better.

They lost two of their four most recent games, including one against 12-20 Marquette on the final day of the regular season. Gifted freshman wing Braylon Mullins has become something of a measure of UConn’s success – or, more accurately, failure. He shot 6-of-24 from the field in the two most recent losses. The Huskies need him to provide a consistent offensive threat in order to be true championship contender.

The defense has been exceptional, with muscular center Tarris Reed blocking shots and Demery and wing Solo Ball locking up opposing guards. You don’t win championships in college basketball on defense, though.

You can lose them there, but you win them on offense, where UConn ranks just 30^th in the nation in efficiency.

“With those teams, it’s really getting score-stop-score. We were so dominant on the defensive end, and we really capitalized on other teams’ mistakes,” Karaban said. “The first two years, we played a full, 40-minute game. And right now, we’re trying to get to that. We’ve allowed other teams to go on runs, or we’re not playing our best basketball during certain stretches. So, really making sure we can be dominant with a score-stop-score mentality and really do it for the full 40.”

Although he did not excel at the Big East Tournament, scoring just 14 points combined in the final two games, Karaban is not the issue. He has been a consistent source of offense, perimeter shooting and rebounding and is shooting .386 from long distance, up from .347 a year ago.

“I think it’s just confidence in who I am as a player. I think last year I let it slip,” Karaban said. “And when I had shooting slumps, I really let I affect who I was as a player instead of focusing on leading the team and doing other things well on the court. I just fell so hard into that shooting slump I let everything else be affected.

“This year, just new mindset where it doesn’t matter how you shoot, just attack the game different ways and making leading my main priority for this team.”

When Karaban celebrated his Senior Night at UConn, it was no surprise to see tears, not with how thoroughly he has invested himself in the Huskies’ success. He claimed not to be “an emotional person”, but it didn’t look that way as he addressed the crowd at Gampel Pavilion and expressed his gratitude for four years of support.

The Huskies wrecked Seton Hall in the game that preceded his address. “Thank God,” he said then, “because I could not with a loss in this last game.” It wasn’t the last game, really. There still was New York and now these games in Philadelphia and potentially a road to be followed through Washington and on to Indianapolis.

If Connecticut wins them all, he’ll leave those Huskies fans with something no player outside the UCLA dynasty has presented to his fan base. He’ll stand alone, and with 15 other legends.

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