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INDIANAPOLIS — In the five years that Alex Karaban has been a UConn Husky, just about everything about college sports has changed. But Karaban has stayed the same.
He ignored prevailing wisdom across college sports, that the transfer portal provided leverage for players to get a better playing situation and bigger NIL (name, image, and likeness) checks.
And for that increasingly rare approach, he’ll be rewarded.
Karaban has already won two national championships with UConn. He could win a third Monday night, which would make him the only man outside of the 1970s UCLA programs to win three titles with one team. He also has 18 NCAA tournament game victories, tied with his coach’s brother, Bobby Hurley Jr., and behind only Duke’s Christian Laettner.
Karaban appears to have largely ignored the changing landscape of college sports. He said he’s never even thought about entering the transfer portal and has pushed off the NBA draft. Chasing the NIL bag wasn’t a priority either.
“I’ve always kept basketball the main thing,” he said in response to a question from FOS. “The money’s gonna find you no matter what. If you’re playing great, if you’re getting better, you’re just naturally going to make more money. So the money should never be an issue—it’s just more so finding the right fit, finding the right program, finding the right system to really prosper and get yourself ready for the next level.”
Before he jumps to that next level, of course, Karaban will have a chance at history.
No NIL Concerns
In 2021, shortly before Karaban enrolled at UConn, the name, image, and likeness era began. Then, after the 2023–24 season, a federal court ruling forced the NCAA to allow players to transfer as many times as they want without penalty. Ahead of this season, another lawsuit birthed the revenue-sharing era, where schools could pay players directly in addition to their outside NIL deals. The situation has created a system widely referred to as “unrestricted free agency.”
Meanwhile, Karaban was helping Hurley build UConn into a championship machine. When Karaban arrived in Storrs midway through the 2021–22 season, the Huskies were in the midst of a rebuild, having just made their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2016 (where they lost to Maryland in the first round). But as a redshirt freshman and sophomore, he started on both of the Huskies’ national championship-winning teams.
Now, he has solidified himself as one of the Huskies’ most valuable players, averaging 13.1 points per game and making clutch plays like the pass to freshman Braylon Mullins to hit the game-winner against Duke. Off the court, he’s transitioned into a leadership role on the team. “He’s been the best babysitter,” coach Dan Hurley said before the Final Four. “I guess now, we’re paying him in NIL.”
To be sure, UConn, which invested $18 million in revenue-sharing this year across sports and has embraced NIL opportunities, has taken care of him. He’s gotten plenty of external endorsement deals as well, with CVS, Great Clips, and NBA 2K. But he’s likely nowhere near the highest-paid men’s college basketball players, and has never been the top dog on any of UConn’s Final Four teams.
That doesn’t appear to have ever bothered the softspoken Karaban. “The money’s just found me,” he said. “it’s a small piece as to why I’ve stayed.”
Five Years in Storrs
No matter how good a player’s situation, it became routine for players to consider other offers, especially if they’re looking to cash in. But in response to a question from Front Office Sports Sunday, Karaban said: “I’ve never considered the portal.”
He said titles made it easy to stay.“I think you win, and start, on two national championship teams here, freshman, sophomore year, it’s gonna be tough going into the office, being like, ‘Coach, I want to leave,’” he said.
But there was another option that could have taken him out of Storrs: the NBA.
Karaban declared for the NBA draft in both 2024 and 2025. Both years, he was projected to be an early second-round pick, which could have netted him somewhere in the $2 million range annually. But second-round contracts aren’t guaranteed, and as a result, NIL and revenue-sharing opportunities have made it easier for players to justify staying in college.
For Karaban, that certainly helped. “I mean, you’re making great money right now in college,” he said in response to an FOS question. “But at the end of the day, everyone’s dream is to play in the NBA and set yourself up for the best success to be in the NBA.”
Still, he put that dream on hold multiple times to chase the three-peat. During a press conference Sunday, Karaban referenced having to make “difficult decisions” throughout his college career—later clarifying in response to FOS that he was referencing those NBA decisions.
“You dream of being on this stage one time, and to be heading into it for a third time, it’s a blessing,” he told reporters Sunday. “It’s the reason why I came back.”
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