Braylon Mullins grabbed the most critical rebound of the night and drew a foul. Flory Bidunga, one Indiana Mr. Basketball fouling another, sent Mullins to the line with 9.2 seconds left.
Hit the free throws, and fifth-ranked UConn has a huge win vs. Kansas, a first in program history. Miss, and the Jayhawks have another chance to tie it.
“He’s got that same routine,” said Luke Meredith, who coached Mullins at Greenfield Central High. “He straightens out his arm, he puts it on his thigh. Once he does that, it’s a bucket. Every free throw. He shot over 90 percent from the line, so that moment wasn’t going to get him shook in any way or fashion. His parents in the stands, sold out crowd, ‘Rock Chalk Jayhawk,’ he drained that first one, just like I knew he would, swish, and the second one was a bucket, too. That’s just who he is.”
Of course, Mullins made both and UConn won 61-56, or else this would be a difference conversation. UConn’s latest freshman phenom is a presumptive one no more — Braylon Mullins is healthy, and he has arrived.
“I’m going to be honest with you, I’m really happy to be back on the court,” Mullins told reporters in Lawrence, Kan., after scoring 15 points in 23 minutes off the bench. “That’s just like the first step, coming off the minutes restriction.”
The Huskies are now 3-1 in this six-game, 28-day nonconference minefield Coach Dan Hurley laid out before them. They’ve defeated BYU, Illinois and Kansas, with a narrow loss to Arizona, most of these four games without Tarris Reed Jr., who was out Tuesday night, and Mullins. Now Mullins has put wind at their backs for games against Florida at Madison Square Garden Dec. 9, and Texas at PeoplesBank Arena Dec. 12. Big things are brewing; even the vaunted 2024 champs lost at Kansas.
“We were down and (Mullins) sparked us,” Hurley said. “He put us in position to win this game. Just a first step for him. He’s going to make our team a lot better going forward.”
Mullins, 6 feet 6, out with knee and ankle injuries, dipped his toes in these waters at Madison Square Garden last Friday, limited to 10 minutes, scoring two points. On Tuesday night, he quieted the Phog Allen Fieldhouse, to the extent that’s possible, his performance reverberating back to Connecticut — and back to his hometown, Greenfield, Ind., a straight, 500-mile shot to the east on I-70, where high school basketball is Hollywood stuff. Meredith, who stepped aside from coaching after last season, was watching at home, but began hearing the buzz as he came to the high school Wednesday morning.
The sign that greets travelers crossing into town on Route 9, notes gymnast Jaycie Phelps, 1996 Gold Medalist, and Braylon Mullins.
“You know, when you come into town, the sign says ‘Welcome to Greenfield,’ and at the bottom it says ‘Braylon Mullins, Mr. Basketball.’” Meredith said. “They put that up last summer before he left. You see a UConn flag here and there, where that was never a thought here before. He’s the talk of the town, because he’s a great kid and comes from a great family, and everybody’s rooting for him and supporting him, wanting him to be great and showcase what we’ve seen since he was a little boy.”
Mullins father, Josh, a police officer in Greenfield, was an outstanding shooter, playing for Indiana University-Indianapolis and gave his son, through DNA and coaching, the smooth, seemingly effortless way to release the ball. No wasted motion, no extra moving parts nor milliseconds used in getting the shot off.
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When he got to high school, Braylon asked his coach to open the gym before classes, so he could work on his shooting.
“Josh was very influential in his game, and his shot, specifically,” Meredith said. “But Braylon spent more time in the gym than anyone I’ve ever coached. He would meet me an hour before school every single day. I would set up ‘The Gun,’ turn on the lights, play some music; he liked to listen to Travis Scott. Every day for four years, he would meet me here at 7 a.m. … His shot was grown and developed by him, every single day. College coaches would come in, and he’d take 500 shots, 25 or 30 at each spot, at 94 percent.”
After school, Greenfield would practice and there were times Meredith would feel the need to sit Mullins out, so the rest of the team could work against each other. Mullins was so dominant not much would get done with him out there. He averaged 32 points per game as a senior, leading his team deep into the state tournament.
“Out of our 30 games, we probably had 20 that were sold out just because of him,” Meredith said.
Accustomed to demanding coaching from Meredith and from his father, Mullins chose UConn over Indiana and North Carolina. Hurley and the UConn staff put in the most time on him, and in this breakout game it was easy to see why. The nerves wore off very quickly.
“And I just played basketball,” Mullins said. “At the end of the day, it’s a child’s game.”
The Huskies were in a ‘grown-up’ dogfight all night, as expected. Mullins checked in with eight minutes gone, missed his first shot, then put up a three that went in off the glass, just what he needed to break the ice. Meredith recognized the body language, the mannerisms, the confidence, the game.
“He banked that first three in,” Meredith said, “and then stuck his tongue out on the way down the court. I’m like, ‘Okay, he doesn’t look nervous.’ He made some big shots down the stretch. Had that little dribble pull-up, that was an NBA-type move.”
Andre Drummond was UConn’s first one-and-done in 2012, the program’s only one until Stephon Castle two years ago, then Liam McNeeley last year. As productive as they all were, none made this kind of splash, in this kind of setting, in a first game. Mullins didn’t get a warm-up game against a mid-major, he got Kansas. He scored eight points in 8:22 on the court in the first half, and Hurley played him more in the second half, putting him back in with 15:22 left.
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UConn was trailing by seven when Mullins missed a 3-point shot, but got another look later in the possession and hit, his teammates mobbing him. The Huskies surged, and Mullins’ step-back jumper gave them a three-point lead.
UConn gained control of the game by flipping the script from the Arizona game, winning the rebounding battle as another freshman, Eric Reibe, went toe-to-toe with Bidunga in the second half. Mullins hasn’t started a game yet, but he was on the court at the finish, a team-best plus-13, and had two rebounds and two free throws in the last nine seconds.
Now he’s getting his shots up at the Werth Center, in free-throw shooting competitions that, he said, don’t go well on some days.
“Oh, he makes ’em,” Hurley said. “He makes them. He’s a very humble Indiana boy. Humble Indiana boy.”
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