Why Braylon Mullins chose UConn over the NBA Draft

UConn men’s basketball fans got to see a lot from Braylon Mullins in his freshman season.

He made a strong introduction, shutting out the noise at Allen Fieldhouse and leading the program to its first-ever win over Kansas in just his second career game, and had a strong start to Big East play before taking over in overtime to complete a thrilling comeback win at Providence. Mullins went off for 25 points with six made 3-pointers despite a loss to Creighton in Storrs and had 21 points to pace the Huskies in their Big East Tournament semifinal win over Georgetown.

Of course, he hit the 35-foot shot to beat Duke, which will stand as one of the most significant game-winners in NCAA Tournament history. It sent UConn to the Final Four on his home soil in Indianapolis.

But UConn fans didn’t get the whole Braylon Mullins experience, and he knew it.

So the decision to put off the NBA and return for a second year, where he can continue to grow and develop under Dan Hurley and the UConn staff, wasn’t a particularly difficult one.

“He just kind of mentioned it to me while we were eating one night at the hotel (during the Final Four), he was like, ‘I feel like I kind of want to come back,’” his dad, Josh, told The Courant over the phone Monday. “At that point when he said that, I was like, ‘Well I’m not going to push him the other way…’ I think for him, maturity reasons, I think it was better for him to come back and get another year of this, and then just roll into the NBA with a lot more confidence.”

If he’d gone in the draft, Mullins was almost sure to be picked anywhere from late in the lottery to the mid-20s in the first round. Traditionally, a player with that sort of projection would be long gone. But with the ability to earn lofty NIL compensation and endorsement deals in college, and with the recent rise in his national profile, the options were equalized to a certain extent.

Mullins went home on Friday and paid a visit to his old high school, Greenfield Central, where Josh works as a school resource officer and his twin brothers, Cole and Clay, are wrapping up their senior school year, before having a brief discussion about the decision over dinner.

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“It didn’t take long. I think he might’ve even told Hurley before he left that his intentions were to come back, but he didn’t want to release it to the public yet. So he came home Friday and we ate dinner and talked about it. I said, ‘You sure that’s what you want to do?’ And he was good with it. So I left it alone after that,” Josh said.

Braylon announced Saturday, on his 20th birthday, that he would be coming back with a simple Instagram post captioned: “unfinished business.”

He was never 100% healthy after injuring both his ankle and his knee during a late-October practice. The injuries caused him to miss six weeks and the first six games of the season, and it could’ve been worse.

“It was almost really bad to where he was going to have to miss the season. So six weeks was good for him, but I felt like he needed 10 just to truly heal it. But he came back and fought through it and was like, ‘I want to play,’ so they kind of rolled him out a little bit just to see how he could handle it and he did pretty good,” Josh said. “But I felt like he played at like 80-85% all year and maybe even less than that. You’re never truly 100% during a season, but just the injury alone, I felt like his base was off when he was shooting, his shot was messed up a little bit because his base and his balance was off.”

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Mullins had a minor procedure a week ago to address an infection in his knee. His father reported that he is feeling a lot better now and will hopefully be released for physical activity next week as he wraps up the spring semester at UConn.

He will then fly out to Los Angeles or Miami to meet with his agency for a week or two, then come back home for 10 days in May to see his brothers graduate from high school before returning to Connecticut for summer workouts in June.

The goal is to become a top-10 pick come this time next year.

“I think he’s got to make improvements on things, being a leader, parts of his game he needs to work on, his body. And UConn does a great job with all of that,” Josh said. “Hurley and UConn are specific in how they use guys. Like, everybody’s like, ‘We don’t know if Bray can dribble.’ Like, no, we know he can dribble, he was just used to cut and to come off screens. So I think the next step is, can we be more of a playmaker and all of that stuff. My vision was, I thought he would go like 17th in the draft, maybe even 15th at the highest – which is really good, right? But you can come back to UConn and be the guy… I just think another year of confidence at the college level is going to help him transition to the NBA.”

His decision, paired with point guard Silas Demary Jr. and wing Jayden Ross coming back, put UConn in position to have one of the best backcourts in the country entering the 2026-27 season.

“I think it makes Bray feel comfortable, those are his guys he went to battle with this year and they were just pieces that we need. And then they added Nik (Khamenia) and (Najai) Hines, two more pieces we need, and I’m sure they’re gonna get some more dominoes to fall here in the next few days with portal guys… But I’d like to see Braylon turn into more of a leader. But seeing Silas and Jayden come back, it was a no-brainer for him,” Josh said.

“Obviously we have one of the best staffs, if not the best staff in the country putting this stuff together,” he said. “And then these kids buy in, chemistry is built in June and July and the sky’s the limit for them. I mean, everybody counted us out this year and there we were competing for a national championship… I feel like we can get right back there. The pieces are there, gotta add a couple more and I think we can do it.”