Karaban pays heed to Hurley’s challenge, helps will UConn to first win over Kansas

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Dan Hurley laid down an unofficial challenge to his UConn team before it took on Kansas Tuesday.

Adamant about his team crafting its own resume, and avoiding comparisons to the champions of Huskies past, the coach urged his players to do something that had never been done before. Beat the Jayhawks, Hurley insisted, if they wanted to be judged for themselves and not forced to hear him wax nostalgic about the legends of UConn lore.

Message received. And fittingly, it was the most experienced Husky who fielded the call to action and delivered with another modeling of the superhero’s cape.

Alex Karaban only scored 11 points Tuesday, but it was his personal 7-0 run midway through the second half that swung the pendulum in a rock fight, putting the fifth-ranked Huskies ahead for good with 10:47 remaining in regulation and steering them to a 61-56 victory over No. 21 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.

“Having played here before, I was able to kind of know what to expect,” Karaban said as UConn (7-1) earned its first-ever win over the Jayhawks in the five meetings between the schools. “This still is the hardest place I’ve ever played in my college career, so going in, I was mentally prepared for that. I think the experience really helped me out, just making sure the group stayed together throughout the entire game through all the adversary and not really getting too rattled by runs that Kansas made.”

“It’s not always gonna be pretty,” Hurley assessed. “This turned into a real brutal possession game, the pace of play was real slow and it became a real slugfest out there.”

Karaban is one of four players — Solo Ball, Jayden Ross and Jaylin Stewart the others — who faced Kansas in 2023 en route to a second straight national championship. When asked if the experience as a sophomore played a role in helping him stabilize his team on this night, he did not hesitate to reveal he was playing with some added motivation.

“Definitely,” he said. “Going into it, I knew what to expect because the first time, this place was amazing. The second time, you get the idea of what to expect. There weren’t really nerves, but as much as I love this team, in the back of my head, I kept saying, ‘do this for the ’24 team, get this back for the ’24 team.’ To make history with this team for UConn for this year, and get that little revenge for those guys in ’24 that I love, is special.”

“This ’26 team did something that the ’24 team never did,” a proud Hurley echoed. “And we want to accomplish things that the ’24 team couldn’t, so I think the team should be more competitive and want to do shit that the ’24 team didn’t do. That’s my mindset.”

The measure of retribution was almost in vain, as Kansas (6-3) let UConn stay within earshot through most of the first half, but seemed to find an answer whenever the Huskies threatened. The Jayhawks outrebounded UConn by a 22-13 margin in the opening stanza, but the visitors flipped the script to the tune of a 25-10 margin in the final frame, as Hurley used a smaller lineup — with Karaban as the de facto center to spell Eric Reibe — to turn the tables amid a raucous environment.

“This was gonna be all about just weathering the storm this whole game,” Hurley reiterated. “The crowd gets so loud, they make runs, just keep your composure. The switching bothered us. I thought there were things that were not seen. Our guards don’t have their eyes in places to see some of the things that were available versus the switch, and I don’t think we punished it enough getting the ball to Reibe more.”

Reibe did, however, hold his own against Flory Bidunga, finishing his night with 12 points and eight rebounds as the freshman drew the start in place of Tarris Reed, Jr., who missed his third game in four contests as he recovers from an ankle injury.

“If you said to me before the game that Eric would play Flory basically even in the game, that’s big-time stuff by a freshman center at this place,” Hurley said.

Reibe was not the only freshman to turn in a career night, as Braylon Mullins added 17 points off the bench in his second career game. But as the youth had its moments to shine, it was also a salute to a leader, a veteran, a champion.

“Alex had a bad first half,” Hurley admitted. “I just thought he showed the resilience and the mental toughness just to grind out a way to score some field goals late with some off-ball movement. He just gutted it out, and that’s what champions do. He’s the biggest champion in college basketball.”