One year ago at this time, the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team was just days away from their final loss of the season, a 85-66 defeat at the hands of the Creighton Bluejays. From that point on, UConn won 13 consecutive games, including nine combined in the Big East and NCAA Tournaments, by an average of 20.2 points per game, looking as dominant and impervious as any college team has this century on their way to a definitive National Title win.
Because the Huskies entered the 2024-25 season as back-to-back National Champions — and because head coach Dan Hurley touted this year’s roster as his most talented yet back in May — the assumption was that this year’s team would follow suit. Nobody could’ve forecasted how untrue that would turn out to be. UConn is 17-8. At the same point on the calendar last season, they were 24-2. Their eight losses have come to teams both clearly better than the Huskies, as well as teams not on the level of this year’s mostly mediocre squad.
The most troubling loss of the season came this past Saturday, when the Huskies collapsed multiple times down the stretch and lost in overtime to Seton Hall by the final score of 69-68. After the game, Hurley told reporters that UConn “got what we deserved,” noting that the Pirates were the “tougher, more determined” team. In reality, Hurley was sugarcoating how dire UConn’s struggles are. Junior captain and extension-of-Hurley-on-the-floor Alex Karaban, on the other hand, didn’t hold back on what the Huskies were lacking on Saturday afternoon.
“As a team, I’m talking player-wise, we don’t take every game seriously and don’t treat every game life-or-death the way that the coaching staff does,” Karaban said after Saturday’s loss, according to David Borges of CT Insider. “It’s our fault. It’s completely on the players. We just didn’t show up ready to play. We were soft the entire game. It’s on us. The coaches did everything the right way, just like they had for the Creighton and Marquette games.”
Whether it’s effort, toughness, consistency, attitude or just a lack of talent in comparison to the last few years, there’s no other way around it… UConn is in trouble. Suddenly, Dan Hurley and the two time defending champions find themselves on the bubble with just four weeks remaining until Selection Sunday. It would take a handful of upset losses over the next few weeks for UConn to end up on the outside looking in when the NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed on March 16th, but if this season has taught us anything, it’s that this year’s Huskies squad is capable of losing to (and yes, beating) anybody.
The post UConn’s Alex Karaban drops crucial ‘life-or-death’ message after brutal Seton Hall loss appeared first on ClutchPoints.
