UConn freshman Braylon Mullins is expected to be out for the next six weeks after suffering an ankle injury at practice last week. The school announced the news this past Friday.
Mullins, who was named the Preseason Big East Freshman of the Year, is a 6-foot-6 guard out of Greenfield-Central High School in Indiana. According to the 247Sports Composite, he was a five-star prospect ranked as the #1 player out of Indiana, the #2 shooting guard in the country and nation’s #12 overall player in the 2025 class.
Mullins was a McDonald’s All-American last year as a senior and was named Mr. Basketball in Indiana. He averaged 32.9 points per game and buried better than 47 percent of his 3-pointers.
In the Huskies’ win over Boston College in a secret scrimmage last week, Mullins scored 12 points and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers.
Dan Hurley’s program has won two national championships in the last three seasons. UConn let a second-half lead get away in a heartbreaking loss to Florida, the eventual 2025 national champs, in the Round of 32 this past March.
The Huskies return a pair of starters in junior guard Solo Ball (14.4 points per game) and senior forward Alex Karaban (14.3 PPG, 5.3 rebounds per game). They lost three key players in Liam McNeeley (14.5 PPG, 6.0 RPG), Hassan Diarra (7.7 PPG, 5.5 APG) and Samson Johnson (7.5 PPG).
Per the 247Sports Composite, Hurley brought in the nation’s #9 overall recruiting class and the #32 transfer-specific group. UConn welcomes a pair of four-star transfers in Malachi Smith (Dayton) and Silas Demary Jr. (Georgia).
The Huskies added three other freshmen besides Mullins. That group consists of two four-star prospects in 7-foot power forward Eric Reibe and 6-foot-6 Aussie small forward Jacob Furphy. The fourth member of the freshman class is three-star forward Jacob Ross.
FanDuel has UConn with 14/1 odds to win the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Those are the fourth-shortest odds on the board.
Several Huskies are listed on the board at FanDuel to win the Wooden Award. Ball has 65/1 odds, followed by Demary (120/1), Tarris Reed Jr. (120/1) and Karaban (120/1).
Purdue is the 9/1 ‘chalk.’ The next-shortest odds belong to Houston (10/1), Duke (11/1) Kentucky (16/1) and Florida (17/1). Michigan, Illinois and St. John’s share 19/1 odds, while Texas Tech, BYU and Louisville are at 20/1.
In other college hoops news over the weekend, Kentucky beat Purdue 78-65 in an exhibition at Rupp Arena. The Wildcats, who were playing without starting point guard Jaland Lowe, got 15 points and three assists from true freshman guard Jaspar Johnson.
UK’s Otega Oweh and Trent Noah added 10 points apiece.
Florida dropped Illinois 96-86 in a secret scrimmage in Gainesville. Alex Condon led the Gators with 24 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Xavian Lee, a transfer from Princeton, contributed 17 points and a team-high eight assists. He drained 5-of-11 attempts from 3-point range.
UF was playing without starting point guard Boogie Fland, and Illinois was without Andrej Stojakovic.