Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green recently gave his flowers to UConn Huskies senior Alex Karaban for being the reason why UConn was able to engineer their recent game-winning shot.
On Sunday, March 29, Karaban and the rest of coach Dan Hurley’s Huskies beat coach Jon Scheyer’s Duke Blue Devils 73-72 in the Elite Eight of the Big Dance on neutral grounds, the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.
On Tuesday, Green uploaded a video from a recent episode of his “The Draymond Green Show” podcast to X/Twitter, where he discussed Karaban’s late-game heroics in the matchup. Karaban nailed a three-pointer that put his team within striking distance. In the next play, he chose to make the right call instead of chucking up another shot for a heat check.
“Braylon Mullins, wow, from deep. He just raised up. I’m gonna be honest, I really thought it was for the tie. Man, that’s so cold-blooded. For Karaban to hit the three that he hit before and to not go try to go force up another three, but to make the right play is why the basketball Gods rewarded them,” Green explained.
Karaban was also the player who assisted UConn sharpshooter Braylon Mullins‘ game-winning three-pointer, with 0.3 seconds left, against the Blue Devils to win by one point, 73-72. As pointed out by Green, the Connecticut-based program rallied from a 19-point deficit to uncork the historic victory, as they now head to this year’s NCAA Final Four.
Draymond Green Backs Duke Blue Devils Guard Cayden Boozer On His Late-Game Turnover
Duke Blue Devils guard Cayden Boozer was the one who turned the ball over in the final seconds against the UConn Huskies, which resulted in the aforementioned Braylon Mullins go-ahead basket.
With naysayers everywhere criticizing Boozer for his mistake, Green has backed him up by expounding on what the young talent was trying to do. For Green, Duke would’ve won had Boozer’s pass been just half an inch higher.
“Your Cayden Boozer. Everybody’s gonna say, ‘Oh man, why did he not hold on to the ball?’ But the reality is, they had two guys up on the floor for dunks, wide open. If he gets to pass a half an inch higher, they’re in the Final Four. Unfortunately for him, there were 10.0 seconds on the game clock when they inbounded the ball, which means if he takes the ten-second violation game off when you’re on the court, these things are happening in split seconds,” Green said (0:16).
“You don’t know. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, he didn’t wanna shoot the free throws.’ I don’t think it’s that because again if I get this ball, game over,” he continued.
Also Read: Draymond Green Points Obvious Reason Why Victor Wembanyama Vaulted to MVP No. 1 Spot Over Luka Doncic and Others
Read More: “Changed my Life”: Alex Karaban Reveals Dan Hurley’s Life-Changing Advice That Helped Off-Court
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