Greenfield's Braylon Mullins Is Coming Home for the Final Four

Less than a year ago, Braylon Mullins was scoring 38 points in a double-overtime loss in the IHSAA tournament for Greenfield-Central High School. On Sunday, the UConn freshman hit a 35-foot buzzer-beater to complete a 19-point comeback against No. 1 overall seed Duke and send the Huskies to the Final Four.

That Final Four is in Indianapolis. Lucas Oil Stadium is 25 miles from the gym where he played high school basketball.

"The Indiana kid sent us to Indianapolis," UConn senior Alex Karaban said after the game.

From Greenfield-Central to the Biggest Stage in College Basketball

Mullins grew up in Greenfield, about 25 miles east of downtown Indianapolis in Hancock County. He played all four years at Greenfield-Central High School, where he became the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,158 points.

As a senior, he led Greenfield-Central to a 23-4 record while averaging 32.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 3.7 steals per game, shooting over 47% from three-point range. He was named a 2025 McDonald's All-American, the Gatorade Indiana Boys Basketball Player of the Year, and Indiana's Mr. Basketball, joining a list that includes Kyle Guy, Gary Harris, Eric Gordon, Greg Oden, and the Zeller brothers. He was a five-star recruit and a consensus top-25 national prospect.

He chose UConn over Indiana and North Carolina.

"We told Braylon Mullins when we recruited him that we were gonna bring him back to Indy for the Final Four," head coach Dan Hurley said Sunday. "And now Braylon Mullins is going back to Indy for the Final Four."

The Shot That Changed the Tournament

Mullins' freshman season at UConn was not smooth. He missed seven games due to injuries and a concussion before entering the starting lineup in early December. On the season he averaged 12.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists while shooting 34.5% from three.

None of that mattered on Sunday.

UConn trailed Duke by 19 points in the first half and was 1-of-18 from three at one point. Mullins himself was 0-for-4 from beyond the arc heading into the final seconds. The Huskies chipped away in the second half, and with 50 seconds left, Alex Karaban hit his first three of the game to cut Duke's lead to 70-69. Cameron Boozer answered with a jumper to push it back to 72-69. Silas Demary Jr. then hit one of two free throws to make it 72-70 with 10 seconds remaining.

Duke needed to hold the ball for 10 seconds. On the inbound, Cayden Boozer's pass was deflected by Demary. The loose ball found Mullins' hands. He passed ahead to Karaban. Karaban threw it back. Mullins pulled up from 35 feet.

It went in with 0.4 seconds left. UConn 73, Duke 72.

No. 1 seeds that had led by 15 or more points at halftime were previously 134-0 in NCAA Tournament history. That record is now 134-1.

"I looked up at the clock and it said 5 seconds, so I tried to get the ball to somebody who had made one in the game," Mullins told CBS. "And he wanted to throw it back. So I saw 3 seconds and it was the last shot."

Hurley called Mullins a "rare human being" and praised his courage for taking the shot on a night when nothing had been falling.

The Homecoming

The Laettner comparison is impossible to avoid. In 1990, Christian Laettner hit a buzzer-beater to send Duke past UConn in the Elite Eight. That shot haunted UConn for 36 years. On Sunday, in the same round, with the same stakes, a UConn freshman answered it.

"When I saw him release it, I was like, that really might go in," Karaban said.

For Indiana, the storyline cuts differently. Mullins was the best high school basketball player in the state last year. IU offered. He left. Now he's coming back to play the biggest games of his life inside Lucas Oil Stadium, less than 30 miles from Greenfield. His family won't need to book a flight. His high school teammates can drive over after work.

UConn faces No. 3 Illinois in Saturday's national semifinal at Lucas Oil Stadium, tipping at 6:09 PM on TBS. The Huskies are chasing a third national championship in four years. No program has done that since UCLA under John Wooden.

On Saturday, a kid from Greenfield, Indiana walks onto the court at Lucas Oil Stadium with a chance to play for a national championship in front of everyone who watched him grow up. That's a March Madness story only Indiana can tell.

For more on every Indiana player in the 2026 tournament, check out our full list of Hoosiers playing in March Madness. For the full guide to Final Four weekend, here's our Stay and Play Guide, the best free fan events, and where to watch the games downtown.

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