STORRS, Conn. — The 2024-2025 UConn men’s basketball roster may be complete after star forward Alex Karaban announced on Wednesday that he will withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to Storrs for his redshirt junior season.
The 6-foot-8 product of Southborough, Mass. is a two-year starter and back-to-back national title winner who was an instrumental piece in securing UConn’s 2023 and 2024 championships. According to the UConn Athletic Department, Karaban started 77 of the games he appeared in over the past two seasons, and the team has a 68-11 record in games he’s played.
Last season, as a redshirt sophomore, Karaban scored 13.3 points per game, grabbed 5.1 rebounds per contest and shot 49.5% from the field. On Tuesday, Karaban announced his decision to return to UConn on X hours before the NCAA’s stay-or-go draft deadline.
Karaban will be the lone starter to return to UConn following the team’s dominant run through the 2024 postseason. Sophomore center Donovan Clingan and freshman guard Stephon Castle are projected to be early NBA lottery picks, and fifth-year seniors/First Team All-Big East guards Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton, an AP First Team All-American and the Bob Cousy Award winner, exhausted their eligibility; both could be second-round draft NBA picks.
Karaban’s announcement on Wednesday will likely wrap up a productive offseason for UConn men’s basketball. With four-star recruits Ahmad Nowell, a 6-foot-1 guard, and Isaiah Abraham, a 6-foot-6 forward, already set to come to Storrs in the fall, UConn landed ESPN’s No. 9 overall prospect in the high school Class of 2024, Liam McNeeley, a dynamic 6-foot-8 five-star forward with one of the best jump shots in his class.
Through the transfer portal, UConn also added Tarris Reed Jr., a 6-foot-10 center from Michigan, who was previously a top-35 recruit and played major minutes for the Wolverines over the course of two seasons.
The Huskies also added Aidan Mahaney, a 6-foot-3 guard from Saint Mary’s, who earned a national reputation as an impressive scorer and playmaker during his two seasons with the Gaels, averaging 13.9 points per game.
Despite the additions of multiple game changing players, UConn could very well run its offense through Karaban next season. Karaban, who was named unanimously to the Big East All-Freshman team in 2023 and was named a preseason watchlist honoree for the 2024 Karl Malone Award entering last season, is a talented scorer who can hit shots from all three levels – the paint, the mid-range and beyond the arc.
With Karaban’s return, UConn is well-positioned to compete for a third consecutive national championship in 2024-2025. Karaban will be the centerpiece of a team that will try to make history and become the first men's college basketball program since UCLA in the 1970s to win three in a row.
While Karaban would have almost certainly been drafted next month, by returning to UConn, he hopes to cement himself as a surefire first round NBA draft pick next June, and UConn fans are much obliged to be part of the journey for one more season.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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