Karaban wins Big East Freshman of the Week award for fifth time

HARTFORD — Might as well re-name it the “Alex Karaban Award.”

For the fifth time this season on Monday, UConn men’s basketball forward Alex Karaban was named Big East freshman of the week. Karaban earned the award the first two weeks of the season, again on Jan. 2 and Jan. 23, then on Monday, after his pair of 3pointers in the final three minutes at Georgetown on Saturday spearheaded the Huskies’ victory.

“I definitely enjoy getting the award,” Karaban said on Monday. “It’s nice to see all the hard work paying off. It all leads up to the team’s success, too. I wouldn’t be getting it if our team wasn’t winning or putting me in the position to win the award.”

Karaban, who scored all 11 of his points in the second half on Saturday, is averaging 9.7 points and 4.1 rebounds while shooting a healthy 38.4 percent from 3.

He’s started all but one of the Huskies’ 24 games.

“Teams that are having a really good year, especially in our league, you probably can’t name many of the top five, six teams in the league that have freshmen in such big roles,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “A lot of guys that were maybe rated higher than him are unplayable, or really hurt their team. We’ve been a better team than we were last year through 24 games overall, in part to his high IQ, what he does floor-spacing. He’s just such a quick learner.”

Hawkins named finalist for West Award

UConn guard Jordan Hawkins is one of the top 10 candidates for the 2023 Jerry West Award, given annually to the nation’s top shooting guard in Division 1 men’s college basketball.

Hawkins, a 6-foot-5 sophomore, is second on the Huskies in scoring at 16.3 points per game, entering Tuesday night’s Top 25 showdown with Marquette. He is shooting 39.4 percent from 3-point range and 85.9 percent from the foul line. In Big East games only, Hawkins leads the conference in scoring at 17.5 points per game.

Joining Hawkins as candidates for the award are Baylor’s Adam Flagler and Keyonte George, Houston’s Marcus Sasser, Terrence Shannon Jr. of Illinois, Gradey Dick of Kansas, Marshall’s Taevion Kinsey, Miami’s Isaiah Wong, NC State’s Terquavion Smith and Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi.