{"id":185441,"date":"2026-04-02T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=185441"},"modified":"2026-04-02T01:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T05:19:19","slug":"braylon-mullins-heroics-for-uconn-may-signal-a-big-east-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/04\/02\/braylon-mullins-heroics-for-uconn-may-signal-a-big-east-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"Braylon Mullins’ Heroics for UConn May Signal a Big East Revival"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the shot clock ran down, nobody could have anticipated, not even future hero Braylon Mullins<\/a>, what would occur in a game full of highlights from both Boozer brothers and a runaway halftime lead by the Duke Blue Devils.<\/p>\n

On a deflected pass attempt with seven seconds on the clock, UConn had one last, fleeting chance to at least tie this game with a few seconds left in regulation. However, an unexpected hero delivered a shot that epitomizes March Madness.<\/p>\n

The freshman guard Mullins released the ball with less than two seconds left, just mere feet from half court, and it was nothing but net. Just twenty minutes earlier, it had seemed nearly impossible, but now it was more than possible; it was certain: UConn was going back to the Final Four.<\/p>\n

This shot did more than send the Blue Devils home; it proved that the Big East Conference belonged.<\/p>\n

Braylon Mullins’ Heroics for UConn May Signal a Big East revival<\/h2>\n

One may be thinking, “Of course, the Big East belongs.” UConn won back-to-back titles two years ago, and Villanova won two national championships in 2016 and 2018. This assertion is, of course, true, yet it has not stopped many from thinking that the NCAA has some sort of vendetta against the Big East. This thinking follows the widely criticized Selection Sunday results for the conference.<\/p>\n

A major talking point was where St. John’s ended up in the bracket. Despite winning both the Big East regular season and tournament championships, they were slotted as a 5-seed in the incredibly difficult East region.<\/p>\n

This decision — combined with the fact that the Big East Player of the Year and pride of St. John’s, Zuby Ejiofor<\/a>, was only an honorable mention on the All-American team — left both Red Storm and Big East fans with a bitter taste in their mouths.<\/p>\n

However, it was not only St. John’s that got a difficult draw; it was the entire conference. The NCAA puzzled Basketball Hall-of-Famer and legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski<\/span>\u00a0by placing both UConn and St. John’s in the same region. On the Pat McAfee Show<\/a>, Coach K explained, “That never happens…I thought that was a really, not a good thing to do for the Big East.”<\/p>\n

The college basketball community largely echoed his sentiments, fueling speculation that the Big East is no longer as respected as it once was by the committee.<\/p>\n

The Big East Keeps Marching<\/h3>\n

All of these talks about committee snubbing, or playing conference favorites, didn’t matter once Mullins’ three-pointer connected from the logo. The ACC, home of the elite — such as Duke, UNC, and Virginia — was no longer dancing. The ever-popular SEC was sent home a few hours earlier in blowout fashion, as Tennessee fell to the Michigan Wolverines, 95-62.<\/p>\n

All that remained were two teams, Michigan and Illinois, from the Big Ten; the Arizona Wildcats, representing the Big 12; and the UConn Huskies, the heroes of the Big East.<\/p>\n

UConn, a team that had lost twenty-two days earlier to a lowly Marquette team in regular-season Big East play, is still dancing.<\/p>\n

Mullins and UConn Going Forward<\/h3>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Thanks to Mullins, UConn takes on Illinois en route to hopefully their third trip to the title game in four years. Seeing how feisty the Huskies became as they were on the brink of defeat on Sunday, Illinois has their work cut out for them in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

Above all, Mullins’ shot gave them hope. After a very disappointing season and tournament appearance<\/a>\u00a0in 2025, there is no doubt that this year’s team felt a need to bounce back.<\/p>\n

It is difficult to imagine the elation Mullins and his teammates felt when they beat the buzzer, but I imagine that feeling is one they are chasing on Saturday. Mullins has already demonstrated that his team and conference are deserving; now, it’s their turn to scale the mountain again and return glory to Storrs and the Big East.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the shot clock ran down, nobody could have anticipated, not even future hero Braylon Mullins, what would occur in a game full of highlights from both Boozer brothers and a runaway halftime lead by the Duke Blue Devils. On a deflected pass attempt with seven seconds on the clock, UConn had one last, fleeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5812,"featured_media":185477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2],"tags":[4447,861,832,1744],"class_list":["post-185441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","tag-big-east-basketball","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-uconn-huskies"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185441"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185468,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185441\/revisions\/185468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}