After the rain, Braylon Mullins’ elite potential takes greater flight as UConn rolls to 6-0 Big East start

Braylon Mullins has led UConn in scoring and rebounding in both of Huskies’ last two games. (Photo by The Associated Press)

HARTFORD, Conn. — Braylon Mullins’ explosive display from long range Wednesday promoted Dan Hurley to call his latest freshman superstar the bringer of rain.

Mullins led UConn with 24 points in Wednesday’s come-from-behind win at Providence, but there was another storm in the forecast Saturday.

The freshman once again paced the fourth-ranked Huskies with 16 points as UConn remained unbeaten in Big East play. And while the 72-60 victory over DePaul left more to be desired from a team still seeking its complete form, Mullins’ development has been perhaps the greatest takeaway from this recent stretch of games.

“I think it’s the reps in practice that (Hurley’s) been putting me in,” Mullins said. “I’m trying to play as hard as possible on defense and assert myself in the offensive scheme. I’m just trying to do that every single day and just trying to move on from games, just play good games.”

“He’s come along tremendously for us,” Alex Karaban observed. “You see the confidence that he has offensively, he’s always been an underrated defender since he stepped onto campus, and he’s just more comfortable with us. He’s talking a lot more, which is great, but he’s not playing like a freshman. He’s one of the best freshmen I’ve played with, and he’s just an elite player. He’s just really changed everything for us this season.”

Heralded as a lethal shooter when UConn signed the former Indiana Mr. Basketball, Mullins has made strides in other areas since returning from an ankle injury sustained in late October. In each of the past two games, he has also led the Huskies in rebounding, securing seven boards on Saturday to further a maturation that has been a byproduct of UConn’s vaunted defense.

“In some of those situations, you’ve got the center rotated over to contest at the rim,” Hurley said, explaining Mullins’ newfound rebounding prowess. “Because of the way we play defense and what we’re trying to do with the 3-point line, guarding the line, we’re gonna get driven at times because of the emphasis on guarding the 3-point line. So the center is going to contest at the rim, and then you need your perimeter people that sink in and can go get on the defensive glass. And Braylon has proven he can do that.”

In a way, Mullins continues to evoke memories of Stephon Castle during the latter’s freshman season of two years ago. Castle, much like Mullins, was also brought along gradually after an early-season injury before blossoming into an all-around talent that eventually became a Top 5 draft pick and NBA Rookie of the Year. Mullins has yet to reach those heights, but has certainly found a rhythm as UConn ramps up its intensity.

“Braylon was awesome today,” Hurley said. “Braylon has started to really figure it out. The guy’s an all-around player and he is a reliable defensive player, too. If you look at his ability to kind of get over screens and guard the ball, he’s, in a similar way to Stephon, not our best defensive player, but he’s a reliable defensive player. He’s getting comfortable out there. I think Braylon is a ball player, not just a shooter, scorer. This guy makes plays all over the court.”

“Coming in, I wasn’t looking at the comparisons or wasn’t expecting to hear it,” Mullins added with the similarities to other UConn freshmen over the years. “I’m kind of trying to flow myself into the year, especially with the injury. It’s great to hear being compared to all those greats. I’m gonna continue to improve and grow up.”

Ultimately, the postgame conversation Saturday went back to the shot, and the technique and mechanics Mullins learned from his father. His coach is usually not one to compare his players to superstars, but on this day, the rules were bent.

“Other people would crush me, but it’s like, a little bit like Steph Curry,” Hurley said, describing Mullins’ shot arc and angle. “I’m gonna get crushed because I just said Braylon and Steph Curry, but he has a lower release and it’s high, but he gets it off so quick. He’s able to get his footwork and his body turned, and for when the ball touches his hand until when he gets the release off, it’s so quick that he’s able to make up for not having as high a release point. It’s a unique release point.”

“Every time he shoots it, though, the truth is you think it’s going in. That’s always been my judgment for who are great shooters. Every time Cam Spencer shoots the ball, I think it’s going in. Anytime (Jordan Hawkins) shot the ball, I thought it was going in. Anytime Alex Karaban shoots the ball, I think it’s going in.”

Mullins, as is his default, remained humble, even if he thought Hurley may have been slightly off base comparing his star freshman to the most prolific shooter in professional basketball history. But in his last seven games, where Mullins is shooting 49 percent from the field, 44 from distance and 86 from the free throw line while making 20 of his 45 long-distance attempts in that span, the numbers do not lie about his prodigious talent.

“That’s a crazy take,” a candid Mullins said with a wry smile. “That dude’s on a different level. But you’ve just gotta come in confident, shoot the ball and just stack games, stack days. So that’s kind of what it is.”

“It was just me and my dad in the high school gym back in Indiana, before school, after school. I wasn’t really looking at comparisons to anybody. He kind of taught me how to shoot growing up, just the reps, the shootaway gun every morning, every night. He was teaching me kind of progressive, and it just played out. They used to look much different my freshman, sophomore year of high school. I think me getting stronger over the period of time kind of just helped it, and it’s kind of just progressing on.”

Before the rain could dry out, Karaban was asked to describe his teammate’s greatest weapon. No stranger to proficient marksmen over his career, Karaban compared and contrasted Mullins with his own shot, but praised the rookie wunderkind just the same. 

“It’s not as pretty as Braylon’s,” Karaban said of his own shot. “But he’s got a great art, one of the quickest releases I’ve been around. I think as a movement shooter too, you just see he can get it off at any angle, and his feet set right away too. So he’s an elite shooter. He’s like a Hawk, he’s like a Cam just with how elite of a shooter he is, and I think the arc, too, just in the arc, it looks like it’s going in every single time.”