Dom Amore: For Alex Karaban, UConn men, ‘mental edge’ of March beginning to materialize

[ad_1]

STORRS — The ball was kicked out to Alex Karaban, and resolute, shot-ready, he threw it in. No bricks, no rattling in and out, no turnovers or meltdowns.

Not now, not on March 5.

Karaban and the Gampel Pavilion crowd exulted in the moment, a massive release of pent-up tension. It didn’t blow the roof off, thankfully, as there were enough issues on that front on a rainy night, but there couldn’t have been a person in the arena who didn’t feel good for Karaban. Even Marquette coach Shaka Smart, as time ran out on UConn’s 72-66 victory, had kind words.

“I told him, ‘that’s what you do,’” Smart said. “He’s a winner.”

Alex Karaban leads UConn men’s basketball to critical 72-66 win over No. 20 Marquette

It has been a difficult, often frustrating season for Karaban, for Dan Hurley, for UConn men’s basketball. Difficult because there have been some bad losses, and some harder-than-expected wins, frustrating because of what has come before, back-to-back national championships that raise the bar unreasonably high.

But it is March now, the reset button’s been hit and the Huskies are starting to look like their old selves. The victory over Marquette could be a season-maker, lifting UConn to 21-9, 13-6 in the Big East, a ledger that would thrill 95 percent of the programs in the country. And things are trending right.

“There are a lot of teams in the country that have eight, nine, 10 losses that are going to be threats to do some good things in March,” Hurley said. “We have this belief, too, if we can take care of business Saturday (against Seton Hall) and go into New York (for the conference tournament) on a roll. When you play or coach at UConn, in the month of March, if you get it rolling you’re convinced you’re supposed to win. We have a mental edge, I think, on a lot of people in the month of March.”

What happened in the past has no bearing on the present, except in that all important area: belief, self-confidence. Karaban, Hassan Diarra and…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/dom-amore-alex-karaban-uconn-172400894.html

Author : Hartford Courant

Publish date : 2025-03-06 17:24:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.