Is fab freshman Braylon Mullins coming of age at the right time for UConn men?

NEW YORK — Braylon Mullins was playing in his 26th game for UConn. Counting the games he missed with injuries, the Huskies’ Big East semifinal against Georgetown was the 34th for his career.

You know what that means at UConn? He’s not a freshman any more.

“There are points, you get it into your head, you’ve got to move on, confidence-wise,” Mullins said, after his 21 points in the Huskies’ 67-51 win over Georgetown Friday night. “At this point in the season, you’re just treating the game how it is. You’re playing with guys. At this point, you’ve moved on from that. That’s how I can stay out of the mental state of always doubting youself.”

Mullins can still look like a wide-eyed teenager from Indiana, but UConn must now ask that he play like a full grown man. That’s a part of being a freshman at a school with perennial championship expectations, and Mullins stepped out of freshman-finding-himself stage, with the ever-physical play of the Big East providing the resistence. However Saturday night’s final vs. St. John’s turns out, Mullins went in looking ready to put both feet into March Madness.

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The most recent, and one of the most successful such passages was made by Stephon Castle, who had a good freshman year in 2023-24, missed some time with an injury, but by the time of the Big East and NCAA Tournament, you knew you were looking at pro. The term “one-and-done” was not just wishful thinking for him, he went from college freshman to national champ to NBA Rookie of the Year, and now Mullins, widely projected as a high to mid-first round NBA Draft pick, has similar possibilities before him. His 21 points was the most by a UConn freshman at the Big East Tournament since Jerome Dyson in 2008, and throw in six rebounds, two assists and a block that helped short-circuit a potential Georgetown rally.

“There’s so much conversation about the best freshman,” Dan Hurley told John Fanta as he walked from the locker room. “He doesn’t have the benefit of being on a lesser team where he is able to attack numbers every game. He fits into a really balanced team, he’s a two-way player, he’s on the backboard and his shooting. Wait til he starts raining in threes. I think he’s got bigger nights even than that ahead of him.”

UConn is built on the perimeter play around the dominant center, Tarris Reed Jr., and the steady point guard, Silas Demary Jr. The Huskies had two closer-than-expected wins over Georgetown during the season, and Mulllins was 3 for 9 from the floor in one, 3 for 10 in the other.

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On Saturday night, he found his spots and fired. He missed his first shot, then hit a couple of midrange jumpers and a three, seven of the first nine points as the Huskies’ took a 9-2 lead and never trailed. Like a maturing freshmen, he saw his shot and took it, even if it wasn’t necessarily in the plan.

“I knew they were in a deep drop,” Mullins said, “and coach was on us, he didn’t want to see a lot of ’72-foot midrange shots,’ he did not want that. So I was happy to see my first two went in, I was like, ‘Man, it could’ve been a long night if I shot these and they were not going in.’ So, yeah, I’m happy those were falling.”

With Solo Ball sitting with foul trouble much of the first half, and Alex Karaban well guarded, Mullins had to get off more shots than both his more experienced teammates combined. He hit 8 of 17, and even though he didn’t rain threes, going 2 for 9, that 6 for 8 on twos made the difference in this game.

“The way he comes off (defensive) changes and is able to get his shot off quick is something you just can’t teach,” Ball said.

UConn has had its share of impactful freshmen, but only three legit one-and-dones in its history. The first, Andre Drummond, had just scratched the surface of his abilities as a freshman in 2011-12. He averaged 10 points, 7.6 rebounds, was a lottery pick and has had a long NBA career, but had only two points and three rebounds in his only NCAA Tournament game. Castle’s overall stats in 2023-24 were modest on a team full of offensive talent, 11.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists, but surged through the tournament, and he scored 36 points in two games at the Final Four, as he played elite defense.

“Braylon can do the same thing, but in a different way,” Ball said. “He’s just ultra talented, he can do so many different things on the floor.”

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Mullins has seen just about all of it by now, national games at neutral sites, craziness at Gampel and in Hartford, the most intimidating of environments on the road at Kansas, Creighton, and the Big East Tournament. On Saturday he steeled himself for an experience even few UConn players experience, a UConn-St. John’s showdown at Madison Square Garden, packed to the gills and the crowd likely to be a 50/50 split.

“I know the first couple of times, you feel  the nerves, playing in the biggest arena, the best arena in the world,” Mullins said. “So you get the nerves out, it is what it is. But I know (Saturday night) is going to be electric, and it’s going to help a little bit in our favor, it’s not going to be 90 percent their fans like it was at their home game (Feb. 6). You can’t really focus on that.”

Mullins’ sixth game at Madison Square Garden wasn’t going to materially change the NCAA resume for either team, it is bound to have an impact on the intangibles for both. What if Braylon Mullins can come of age in these next three weeks?

“It would change our team completely,” Karaban said. “For us, it opens everything up, whether it’s Tarris (Reed Jr.) or Eric (Reibe) down low, or myself and Solo as three-point shooters, or Silas (Demary Jr.) to get downhill, it opens everything up. And he’s been terrific. The type of game he had as a freshman to step up and really lead us to a (conference) championship game is special.”