From Small-Town Indiana to UConn: Braylon Mullins Is Carving A Path To The NBA His Way

Every time UConn Huskies freshman standout Braylon Mullins steps on the floor, he is representing his hometown of Greenfield, Indiana. Strangers to the state’s hoops scene see the passion firsthand, but they can’t truly feel it. There’s competition, pride, and passion inside those walls wherever you go.

“It's a different type of environment,” Mullins told Babcock Hoops in an exclusive interview. “There are so many gyms in Indiana that have college atmospheres, and those gym sizes, it's like a little college. So if you have a rivalry and you're playing in a big gym, it's gonna be a fun night. 

“The setup of everything, the tournament, it's all big things. The people around Indiana, they all love basketball, so you're gonna see people from anywhere come to watch you.”

Born on April 18, 2006, Mullins first picked up a basketball when he was only four years old. His father, Josh, was seven years removed from playing for Ron Hunter at the then-named mid-major program Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. It was natural for Braylon to follow in those footsteps.

It didn’t come without its hard moments. As he grew older, Braylon’s talents shone through, and Josh wanted to ensure his son was motivated and understood his gift. 

“I'm sure he loved and hated it at the same time, the stuff that we went through,” Josh told Babcock Hoops.

Luckily, both had somebody to lean on. A prominent head coach in Indiana for over 25 years, Michael Fox started coaching Braylon in the fifth grade on the same Indiana Elite AAU team as his son. The initial class ultimately produced eight future Division I collegiate athletes, including Purdue commit Luke Ertel.

Eventually, they were joined by future Kentucky big man Malachi Moreno, Indiana forward Trent Sisley, and Notre Dame football cornerback Mark Zackery IV.

“He kinda started it all,” Braylon said of Fox.

With Fox’s guidance, which has many success stories at the next levels, Braylon developed into a special player. Once he arrived at the same Greenfield-Central High School where Josh starred and coached, it became real. Father and son began to butt heads.

“Sometimes, I'd have to be the one to say, 'Hey Josh, he's 14 years old, let him figure this out,'” Fox told Babcock Hoops. “I would kinda always be a shield sometimes when Bray and Josh would battle a little. Josh is just so competitive, too, so it's hard when his dad and him are both so freaking competitive, which you love. That's what makes 'em such good competitors.”

“I'm not nearly as good as Braylon, but me being a former player, I kinda knew what it took to get to these levels,” Josh added. “I think we just kept it in him. I can't say he always loved me when we went through this process, 'cause I pushed his ass really hard. I was like, 'When you get to a different level, it just keeps getting harder. So you've got to understand, I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just trying to tell you how it's gonna be.'”

Although Braylon admittedly retaliated at first, he was improving despite the disagreements, so Josh must have been doing something right. Even if it was by force, it began to paint a clearer picture. 

As his career began to blossom, Braylon could’ve bolted to a national program to gain extra exposure. However, unlike many of his peers, he carved out his own path at Greenfield-Central.

“Growing up playing for a public school, not going to a prep school, I think it just kinda represented my community,” Braylon said. “Just being here all my life and growing up with my teammates, it just meant something to put that jersey on. All the accolades coming after, it was kinda like the cherry on top.”

“I don't think people understand how good Indiana high school basketball is,” Josh added.” I’m not saying that any of our high school teams would necessarily beat the prep schools, but I bet you they would know they were in a game. I think it's just the IQ of learning the game, the nostalgia of it; Indiana basketball's just different.”

Braylon committed to play for UConn in Oct. 2024. He was rewarded for his loyalty as a consensus five-star prospect and McDonald’s All-American, but that paled in comparison to being named Indiana’s Mr. Basketball.

“It means everything,” Braylon said.

“The kid didn't go to prep school so he could stay and be Mr. Basketball,” Fox added. “It's the best honor you can have in the state of Indiana as a player. They put your name on the sign when you come into town. Who do they put on those signs? Astronauts, famous actors, and Mr. Basketball. Those are the kind of people that they all talk about and want to be.”

Braylon is in the company of state high school royalty like Kyle Guy, Gary Harris, Eric Gordon, Sean May, Greg Oden, Tyler, and Cody Zeller. It’s a prestigious award that is the oldest of its kind in the country, dating back to 1939.

Josh thought that Braylon could win Mr. Basketball as a junior. As a senior, he knew he “owned it.” Braylon led Greenfield-Central to a 23-4 record, averaging 32.9 points. 7.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 3.7 steals per game while shooting over 47 percent from three. That season, he had a school-record-setting 52-point outing weeks before the state tournament.

“It's there forever. It's never going away,” Josh said. “Every time we walk into the gym, his jersey's up there with the No. 1 and then the McDonald's All-American jersey's right underneath.”

“By the time my senior year ended, we had a pretty good relationship,” Braylon added. “He's been very, very motivational with my basketball journey. He's dad now; he's not a coach.”

Braylon enjoys family vacations with Josh, his twin brothers, Cole and Clay, and his mother, Katie. Like most people his age, he plays video games to unwind and have a moment to himself. He’s described as quiet, even shy.

“But after you get to know him, he's a little bit more like the assassin,” Fox said. “He's the guy that is always thinking and always working, trying to figure out what it takes to either get better as a player, get his team better, or just plotting his next move, as they say.”

“He's not the one that's gonna be flashy and put a whole bunch of things on social media,” Josh added. “That's just not him. They're working on him, but he's in his room, quiet. He just doesn't like the attention. But I was like, 'Well, you're about to get it, so you might want to open up just a little bit.'”

Braylon did “everything” with Cole and Clay, including competing with them at Greenfield when the two played on the junior varsity squad. Fox saw them look up to him. Josh, meanwhile, saw the weight he was putting on Braylon trickle down to Cole and Clay. Nobody ever fought, but frankly, it wasn’t pleasant to be around the four at home during basketball season.

That changed when they realized Braylon was moving away, bringing everybody closer together.

“It was a little emotional,” Braylon said. “Especially during the summer, it was like, 'Man, I'm not gonna be home for a while. I'm not gonna see you guys like I usually do every single day.' So yeah, it hit me a little bit, especially leaving.”

Storrs, Connecticut, feels a little bit like home to him. It’s a similar size with not a whole lot to do. In his own words, Braylon loves basketball, “and that’s kinda all I do now.” When Fox went on the visit with him, it felt like it would be a good place for him to land.

“It's kind of its own little Greenfield, Indiana,” Fox said. “But it was a way for him to step away and truly become an adult. It was kind of a transitional year — either one year, two years, whatever this happens to be. A transitional time for him to be away from his parents a little bit, but also be in an environment with a small-town feel.”

When Braylon checked into his first game with the Huskies against Boston College in a mid-October exhibition, the game was fast. He needed to figure out how to manage the shift in pace. Unfortunately, only 11 days later, he injured his ankle and knee during practice. At the very least, it was supposed to take six weeks to return to the court.

Braylon was rehabbing and trying to get back as soon as possible, checking in with Fox and his folks back at home frequently. This was the first time he had what he considered a bad injury, which was more difficult to deal with than the minor back pain he had in the first month of his junior AAU season.

Initially hard on himself, as he was managing a setback and adjusting to a new life, Braylon started to view it as a positive. He could watch the game unfold from his seat and envision the spots he’d fit in and different reads he may make. Sooner than anticipated, he was back on the hardwood and thrown “into the fire” at practice, as Josh put it. Babying him wouldn’t help prepare for the matchups ahead.

“Anybody that sits out for weeks and you come back, you're gonna be rusty,” Josh said. “Your wind's not gonna be there, your conditioning, and any of that stuff. But as far as that, he's done everything that he's asked of and more, and I think that's why he was back so early.”

On Nov. 28, just over a month from being forced to the sideline, Braylon made his official UConn debut at Madison Square Garden vs. Illinois, albeit with a 10-minute restriction. That was not the case in his second game, where he burst onto the college basketball scene with a crowd-quieting 17-point night in 23 minutes off the bench in a 61-56 Huskies victory over Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.

“There's nothing that can compare to it,” Braylon said. “Especially playing at MSG, the game before that. Those are two gems there. Allen Fieldhouse, it's one of a kind, and that being one of the games where I had a decent outing. I was happy to get a win out of that place, too.”

UConn held him under 16 minutes in the next two games, but that would be the last of the limited action. Since Dec. 12, Braylon has started each of the seven games the Huskies have played, averaging 30 minutes per contest. He’s scored in double figures in five of those, recently setting a career-high in a hard-fought 101-98 overtime win at Providence with 24 points in a whopping 41 minutes.

“It's been fun. It's just kinda getting my feet wet,” Braylon said. “That's how the first couple of games went. Now, it's just trying to get into a flow of offense and just trying to figure everything out. I'm still not perfect, still learning.”

“He's a freshman, so he's never really truly seen it, but playing for national-championship level teams, there's always gonna be pressure no matter who you are as a kid or as a player,” Josh added. “But I think he's handling it pretty well, actually.”

Dan Hurley is Braylon’s coaching match made in heaven.

“It's probably the No. 1 reason why he went to UConn,” Fox said. ”He wanted somebody that was gonna coach him up and make him better and prepare him for the next level.”

“To get the best from Braylon, I think people needed to pull it out of him,” Josh added. “We had a lot of people that didn't necessarily want to make Braylon mad or pull out what we thought was inside of him. That's kinda why I pushed him so hard.”

Braylon knows nothing other than tough love. He has spent his entire life being taught the hard way by Josh, which mirrors Hurley’s philosophy. He’s a two-time NCAA Tournament champion who sets that standard every day of the week.

“I feel like I've already been prepared for that,” Braylon said. “It's different. It's a little personal sometimes when it's with your dad, so with Coach Hurley, it's like you understand you've got to move on and just play through it. I think he definitely prepared me for that.”

“I think people have the wrong perception of him, of who he is as a person from what they see on TV; he's not like that at all,” Josh added. “But he will get after your ass in practice, and he demands the best from you, and I think that's what Braylon needed was somebody like that, that would keep pulling and pushing him to see where he could get to, what level he could get to.”

Despite the 19-year-old’s reserved nature, Braylon takes to Hurley’s “fiery” personality.

“I think what people don't really realize about Hurley is he builds such good relationships with his guys that they'll run through a wall for him,” Fox said. “Braylon really appreciates that and appreciates the relationship that they've built, not only with Hurley, but with Luke [Murray] and the rest of the staff.”

Braylon welcomes constructive criticism from coaches with open arms. Fox has been in charge of his recruiting and travel for the last seven years. The family trusts him because he knows everybody, and his track record of sending kids from his program to the right places speaks for itself. 

He recalls accompanying Braylon for a visit to Lexington, along with his parents and Greenfield-Central head coach Luke Meredith. Kentucky’s Mark Pope asked Braylon and those around him what he needed to work on as a player. Fox was blunt, noting that he “sucks” as a handler in ball-screen actions. 

Despite the fact that Braylon led the Adidas 3SSB circuit in efficiency, Pope pulled up Synergy with data that backed Fox’s claim.

“He found something and talked to him about his hips,” Fox said. “He found it on video, showed him he was opening up his hips too quickly in his actions, and letting players get into him. So Bray took that information, and he spent the rest of that fall working on ball-screen reps.”

In response, Braylon recently had Murray tell Fox that he’s gotten a lot better in ball-screen actions as a playful jab back. It’s a perfect example of what being coachable means.

“You've got to hear everybody out,” Braylon said. “You can learn from anybody. Everybody has something to say, and you just can't take it negatively. He's one of those people that he can say something to you and you can just put it in and it can work. 

“He was the one who got a lot of connections for my offers, so I'm very thankful about that and that recruiting process when I went through it.”

Since experiencing his first and only March Madness moment in 2003, Josh desired his future children to have the same feeling. That’s why his message to Braylon is to enjoy the moment and not feel like what he does is work.

“You've got to love the game,” said Josh, who admittedly didn’t take his own advice when he was a student-athlete. “I feel like there's the love for basketball where if you don't and you're just doing it because somebody makes you, I don't know that you'll ever truly be good at it.”

Though it didn’t start that way at UConn with the injury, it’s been a lot easier since Braylon came back.

“You can't be mad about playing basketball,” Braylon added. “I'm just trying to have as much fun as I can, and I think enjoying it will just make a positive outlook on your mentality.”

Braylon wears No. 24, the same number his dad and Kobe Bryant did. Aside from one year that it was taken, that’s been the case his whole life.

Josh hopes that Braylon recognizes the blessing of the opportunity he’s earned. He also longs for him to have that same enthusiasm he got from watching Bryant as a 10-year-old, Giannis Antetokounmpo when Kobe retired, and Tyrese Haliburton leading his Indiana Pacers to an NBA Finals appearance.

Looking ahead can make people forget the present. Josh doesn’t want him to skip steps. There is a double-edged sword with that, however, as Braylon is very much so on NBA Draft boards. He knows it, his family knows it, and his coaches know it. 

“The one thing he's always done is rise to the occasion,” Josh said. “People have always doubted him, always said he's not good enough, he's not this, he's not that. I think, every time, he's just surprised people, and he's just told you who he is. 

“They never thought he'd be Mr. Basketball and a McDonald's All-American. They never thought he'd play at UConn, and here we are. So, the next step's the NBA, and you've just got to stick there. I think he just needs to find a role and be great at it.”

Being an elite shooter from distance is a separator for his professional profile, but there’s so much more than meets the eye with Braylon’s skill set.

“​​In the NBA, shooting comes at a premium, and that’s Braylon Mullins’ calling card,” lead NBA Draft analyst Matt Babcock said. “But he’s not limited to being a flat-footed, catch-and-shoot guy; he’s constantly moving without the ball, hunting his shot, and he can knock down tough ones, too. I also love his approach: he’s confident and plays with real assertiveness. If he enters this upcoming draft, he’ll be in high demand.”

“When it comes to winning time, Bray's the kid that you want to take that shot,” Fox added. “There's some kids that walk away or don't want to take that shot, and there's some people that you trust to make that shot. Whether it was making the eighth-grade last-second play against Jalen Haralson to making shots on Darryn Peterson in travel basketball, Bray's always been willing and able to make those kind of plays for his team.”

The primary reason Braylon chose UConn was to showcase his defensive acumen and basketball IQ for a proven program.

“I could've gone anywhere and been a scorer, but I wanted to win,” Braylon said. “And I think when you win, it just translates to the next level. I think that's just my competitive mindset of being a winner. It definitely sets it apart. I just want to win something this year, and everything will follow up after that.”

“He can drive it,” Fox added. “He can make other players better with the ball in his hands, too, whether he's playing more of a point [or combo]. But just his overall feel for the game, he can contribute at those levels.”

Fox and Josh were incredibly proud of Braylon at the McDonald’s All-American Game. Not only was he one of the best 24 players in the United States, but he treated the stage like every game he performed in beforehand. 

While he took only two shots that game and didn’t touch it as much as he preferred, it showed his commitment to team basketball, something NBA personnel will undoubtedly notice.

“I think he showed out in a few different things that people were kinda like, 'Yeah, he's actually really, really good even though he didn't play prep,’” Josh said. “I think that means a lot to us and to him to represent his last name, and Greenfield, Indiana, a small town outside of Indy.

“I think he'll be great in the NBA. That's the game now, is three-pointers. Even though we say he can do more, the game's three-pointers, and I think that's where he can make his niche.”

While Josh’s personal playing journey stopped after IUPUI, he’s well aware that each level comes with its new challenges. He’s tried to relay that to Braylon, as his hoops story is only getting to the good part. 

“I know a lot of people that played in the pros,” Josh said. “Your lifestyle's different, let's put it that way, and that's something Braylon will probably have to adjust to. There’s pressure. It gets bigger. I don't necessarily think it gets worse, but it gets bigger each stage you move up to, and the NBA is obviously the ultimate stage. I told him, 'Really, all eyes are on you right now, so you've just got to be able to handle it.'”

There are 13 active players in the league who were born in the state of Indiana, and historically, there have been 184 to suit up in the NBA. Braylon Mullins is poised to join that list as the first from Greenfield.

“I have no doubt that Bray's got that mettle to keep working and getting better and succeed at the highest level,” said Fox, who’s spoken to over 20 pro scouts about his progression.

“Just trying to make everybody proud and do everything I'm supposed to be doing,” Braylon added. “I'm a hard-working kid just willing to do anything, make my teammates better, make my team better. I'm gonna figure it out on the court and make sure that I succeed and we succeed.”