Alex Karaban Appreciation Thread | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Alex Karaban Appreciation Thread

One of the all-time greatest Huskies, I don't care what metric you choose - he fits.

Thank you Alex for all you have done!
 
Ultimate glue guy-Program stabilizer- Player/coach. Could always count on his effort and impact with winning plays at crunch time. Contributions to our team successes over the last 4 years were endless. Worthy of his Wall status.

A job well done Alex.
 
Thank you, Alex. The team won't be the same without you. You gave everything you had for 4 years and provided the stability, smarts, effort, and calmness that the team needed.

You will be sorely missed.
 
It was easy to tell the casuals from the truly knowledgeable fans based upon how they rated Alex.

Absolute god-tier screener & cutter, whose off-ball movement opened up so much for the rest of the team even when he was the clear fifth option. God I hope he lands with an NBA team that understands the value of that.
 
I'm sad for what he's meant to the community. Living as close to campus as I do, his influence in and around Storrs has been incredible. Even around campus he's just a good guy. You can't replace a kid like him. You can only hope to find someone like him to lead and to be an example for the younger guys to aspire to be like. Hearing Solo Ball and Reed just gush about Alex has been truly impressive.
 
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AK is UConn basketball. Its been such a great ride. I know outsiders think we are the most entitled fan base out there but what really makes me smile is watching my 7 and 10 year old fall in love with this team during AKs run. The teams he led literally created core memories for my kids. The hardest part of this morning was having to hear them say they wished they got another parade to see Alex, Solo, Jayden and all the guys. Crazy, almost 3 parades in 4 years. These kids are so damn spoiled 😁. I hope Brad Stevens keeps him local for a few years before he finds his way back to Storrs. Love you AK!!
 
A legend in the program who, we should remember, probably sacrificed career NBA earnings to come back here multiple times.
 
dead poets society GIF
 
Hope he has a long pro career and then we get to see him on the bench in Storrs, at some point.

I hope he moves past this loss quickly, but I know the type of competitor that he is and its the nature of the mindset. He'll probably have a thousand 'what ifs' run through his head, but hopefully the young man moves on and continues to represent UConn with nothing but the class, intelligence, determination and grace that he has so far.

Hope we see him at a lot of UConn games routing on the future teams.

If he ever visits this board and reads this thread, I'll sum up my comments with "Thank you Alex, for giving us nothing but your very best. You have been truly an absolute joy to watch."
 
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All-time Husky. A true role model and epitome of what it means to lead by example.

I wish I could post videos from my phone. I’ve mentioned before that he did a video for my son for his bday right before the championship his freshman year. It was probably one of his first NIL shoutouts and you could tell he was a little nervous about what to say but he’s such a great dude and will be missed tremendously.

goodbye GIF
 
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He will be back (eventually) in some coaching capacity… one day. Amazing young man. He has more NC’s than… no need to go there. AK you will be sorely missed - best of luck in future endeavors.
 
I will ask that you all forgive me. I feel emotional about this topic. My first year following UConn was 1989. UConn has given me so much joy over my adult life. And among all the players and coaches that have contributed to that, Alex Karaban is #1. He was part of 3 Final Fours and 2 rings. The kid truly bleeds blue. He chose UConn over his own professional career several times. But above and beyond that, this kid is all class. I will miss him. We all, at times, have taken him for granted. I fear next year we are going to realize what he brought to the table cannot be easily duplicated. God bless you Alex. I pray for nothing but success and blessings in all you do.
 
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I cried seeing Alex cry. We are going to miss that man so much. He has been the best representative of our state (and broader New England), our program, and our university that we could have ever asked for. I hope and expect he has a long and fruitful career in the game of basketball, playing and coaching and GMing.

If he or his people ever read this, thank you so much Alex.
 
Scottobot said:
what a career. It will be sad not to see him on court next year
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"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

Hopefully I don't see him around town when I go home to visit my parents. Hopefully my fellow Tomahawk is practicing or on the road with the Celtics.
 
RashadRay11 said:
I cried seeing Alex cry. We are going to miss that man so much. He has been the best representative of our state (and broader New England), our program, and our university that we could have ever asked for. I hope and expect he has a long and fruitful career in the game of basketball, playing and coaching and GMing.

If he or his people ever read this, thank you so much Alex.
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See Dr. Seuss above.
 
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Figured this is a good time to share a story I didn't want to do until Karaban's career was over. Too long but I never shared this all on here before. I know I told @Ricker and @DogMania but didn't want to share everything on here before. Not a huge deal but it is interesting.

As I've said before a few times Alex is from our town. He played 1 year at our local high school as a freshman (although he was a year older because he repeated 8th grade at St. Peter-Marian in Worcester) and was Central Massachusetts Player of the Year at Algonquin. My son is a year older than Alex but they played 1 year together in middle school when Alex was in 7th grade and my son was in 8th grade. Alex was pretty good for a 7th grader, he was about 6-2 then, but no way I could have envisioned what he would become.

In September 2020 I saw that UConn had offered TJ Power of St. John's in Shrewsbury, MA, and I think he had just transferred to Worcester Academy at that point. Alex was at New Hampton. In the article Power said he wanted to be a wing. I saw him play at least 5 times and never saw wing skills. He also was kind of soft. The kids who played against him told me he was "tissue paper soft" and if you put a body on him he folded. UConn hadn't offered Alex at that point.

I knew Tom Moore a little from some AAU events back in the 2000s and we would exchange e-mails sometimes. @DogMania and I would stop in at UConn to watch practices and summer scrimmages and Tom was always very nice to us. We kept in touch even when he was at Quinnipiac. So when he came back to UConn with Hurley I congratulated him. So I decided to tell Tom if he was looking for a tall wing that Alex was better than Power, told him why from what I had seen, and asked why UConn hadn't offered Alex. Tom explained that they didn't get to scout the 2022 and 2023 kids live because of Covid and they wanted to see the kids play live before offering. He said Alex was on his list to watch.

Then the next spring they offered Alex. I told Tom, "Now we're talking!" He laughed. Power went on to become a 5 star recruit and I told Tom maybe I wasn't cut out to scout basketball talent. Power went to Duke, then transferred to Virginia, did nothing at either place, then transferred to Penn and had a very nice junior year.

Then Alex committed to UConn in August 2021 and I was obviously excited and told Tom I want an assist on that recruitment. He laughed and said they were very excited about Alex and he was terrific in the spring and summer of 2021. I told Tom that Alex was a hard worker and smart kid so he would be a positive contribution to the program although I doubted he could ever start at UConn. Again, showing that I should stick to my day job and will never be able to scout basketball effectively!

I've only seen Alex once since he started at UConn. I've told this story on here before. In late August 2022 I saw him with his friends at our local sandwich shop. The place that has the King Karaban Sandwich that he did a small NIL deal with. Supposedly he loves their sandwiches. Anyway, I'm going around the table to say hi to everyone because I had coached all of them in soccer, except Alex of course because he didn't play soccer. I didn't even see Alex until I got to the last person and I go, "Oh, hi Alex." He knew who I was but he didn't know I was a huge UConn fan. We talked about the team and he told me he thought they were going to be really good. He said Sanogo was working on shooting threes and was really good at it. To both things I said, "O.K. we'll see." As we all know the team went on to win the national championship and Sanogo did shoot some threes that season. So Alex is a much better talent evaluator than I am.

Can't wait to see Alex and thank him personally for all he has done for the program. I know the fathers of his best friends from home so maybe I'll ask them to let me know when he is home. Seems crazy that 4 years flew by that quickly.

Sorry for the length of this.
 
He gave the school, the program and the fan base far more than ever could have been asked of anyone. I know I will miss him.
 
Thank you Alex. You definitely are what every kid with basketball dreams should strive to become.

waynes world GIF
 
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