Alex Karaban Selected No. 29 Overall by the Kings in Trade-Up with Cavaliers

Alex Karaban was selected 29th overall by the Sacramento Kings via a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night of the NBA Draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. 

Karaban and Tarris Reed Jr. push UConn up to 26 first-round picks in program history, all coming since 1990. They are the 53rd and 54th Huskies drafted all-time and the 10th and 11th in eight seasons with Dan Hurley at the helm. 

Karaban joined the Huskies out of IMG Academy, starting all four years in Storrs. He probably could have been drafted around the same point in any of the last two drafts, but chose to finish his degree and play out all four seasons of his eligibility under Dan Hurley. NIL probably helped keep him in college for a little longer, to the immense benefit of the program.

The newest addition to the Kings originally hails from Massachusetts, where he was a standout player since middle school. He played one year at his hometown Algonquin High School before transferring to New Hampton School, where he earned New Hampshire Gatorade Player of the Year honors as a junior. He was at IMG Academy in Florida for a semester before deciding to enroll early at UConn. He committed in August 2021 and enrolled that winter to redshirst for the rest of that year.

Karaban was a key piece of consecutive national championship teams as a freshman and a sophomore, and as a junior led the way for a team that stumbled through league play before a second-round NCAA Tournament exit. As a senior, he led the Huskies to a 34-6 mark and the third championship game appearance of his career. He was one of the Huskies’ leading scorers and one of the top players in the Big East the last two years.