Junior F Alex Karaban To Return to UConn for 2025-2026 Season
Redshirt junior forward Alex Karaban announced on Tuesday that he will return to UConn for the 2025-2026 season. He is graduating at the end of this school year, but will stay for his last year of eligibility and pursue a graduate degree.
A native of Southborough, Massachusetts, the 6’ 8” Karaban has been a starter at UConn since game 2 of his freshman season. He is one of only 29 players in college basketball history to start on back-to-back National Championship-winning teams. During the 2024-2025 season, he averaged 14.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game, shooting 44% from the field and 35% from three-point range.
Karaban's junior year performance earned him a spot on the John R. Wooden Award midseason Top 20 watch list, recognizing his significant impact on the court. He was named a 2nd Team All-Big East Conference player, guiding the Huskies to a 24-11 record on the season, and a 3rd place finish in the Big East standings. UConn reached the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament, losing to eventual national champion Florida, despite leading by 3 points with 4 minutes to go.
Alex declared for the NBA Draft after the 2023-2024 season, deciding on the final deadline day to come back to the Huskies. This year he will not even test the draft waters, despite indications that he could be picked in the second round. According to the April 26th update of NBA big board aggregator site RookieScale.com, Karaban is ranked as the consensus 34th best prospect in the country. The most recent mock drafts from Sam Vecenie (The Athletic, updated March 28th) and Jonathan Givony/Jeremy Woo (ESPN, April 8th) projected him as the 31st and 34th pick, respectively.
Karaban joins Solomon Ball, Tarris Reed Jr., Jaylin Stewart, and Jayden Ross as returning contributors for the Huskies next season. They will be joined by necomers Silas Demary Jr. and Malachi Smith from the transfer portal, and a freshman class of Braylon Mullins, Eric Reibe, and Jacob Furphy. Additional roster depth will likely be added from the transfer portal.