Braylon Mullins’s Miracle Caps UConn’s Unbelievable Comeback to Earn Final Four Berth

WASHINGTON — All weekend at the East Regional was a time for remembrance.

The word blueblood was uttered too many times to count. Allusions to historic success were frequently, and fondly, mentioned. Hall of Fame coaches past, present and future reflected on the state of the game before quipping about the modern realities they face on a daily basis plying their craft.

It has been an excellent interlude to the reason that the teams, players, fans and so many scores of media members came to Capital One Arena. Not just for the right to go to Indianapolis later this week for the Final Four, but for the basketball itself.

Never mind the schools on the front of the jerseys or on the sidelines that drew everyone in at record-setting prices, it was the names on the backs, the players themselves, who delivered a masterpiece on the hard court worthy of hanging in any of the museums that call the nation’s capital home. Two Sweet 16 classics birthed an Elite Eight gem that had everything you could have asked for and will certainly never be forgotten by either side even if they wanted to.

UConn 73, Duke 72 in a game that defied belief from start to finish.

“That’s an epic, just another chapter in the UConn-Duke NCAA tournament dramatics,” said Huskies coach Dan Hurley, fresh off chewing through his piece of the net like it was gum postgame. “We’ve had to show a lot of fortitude and resilience and just kind of claw our way through the season. Thought the game was a microcosm of that. We fought, we clawed, put ourselves in position to take advantage of a mistake that they made.

“And one of the most brilliant shooters you’ll ever see shoot a basketball made an incredible, legendary March shot.”

UNREAL SHOT BY BRAYLON MULLINS!!!

(via @MarchMadnessMBB)pic.twitter.com/yJS8YjpV5h
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 29, 2026

It might be difficult to label it simply the shot, but anyone of age to create memories like the one that unfurled on Sunday night should instantly be able to recall what freshman guard Braylon Mullins did for the final three of his 10 points against the Blue Devils, a dagger that was so incredibly pure that it didn’t even graze the rim.

First though, he had to get the ball in his hands as part of a sequence that was simultaneously the worst executed play by one side as it was perfectly done on the other.

That came by way of Mullins helping Silas Demary Jr. double Cayden Boozer with just seconds left and Duke clinging to a two-point lead that had inexplicably been whittled down from a high of 19.

Demary even being near midcourt was notable, much less the 11 points he contributed to the effort prior. The guard suffered a high ankle sprain in the Big East championship game two weeks ago that limited him to a boot when not playing. He did not take a single rep of live practice since and only returned to the starting lineup during Friday’s nail-biting win over Michigan State.

But there he was, suddenly tipping the pass out of Boozer’s hands. Mullins came down with the ball, his feet touching both A's of the March Madness logo at midcourt, and got it to veteran leader Alex Karaban. National player of the year favorite and Duke forward Cameron Boozer came up in his face, brother Cayden was coming in support and lengthy wing Isaiah Evans went flying past to force it right back.

Then, just off center from the right lane line and eight feet past midcourt, Mullins let it fly to secure his “One Shining Moment” for eons to come.

The shot of a lifetime. pic.twitter.com/mns7L1n9ne
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 29, 2026

“I’m still processing all of what just happened,” Mullins said. “I had the ball and I know [Karaban] had just hit one. So I threw it to him with four seconds left, and man, he just threw the ball back to me. I knew I had to put one up. I’m just happy that was the one that went down tonight.”

Indeed, it was one of just five shots from beyond the arc that fell for the Huskies on a night where they attempted 23 of them (22%) and was remarkably their first lead since the first basket of the game. Even more incredible, they were 1 of 18 from three to start the game and could barely hit the broadside of a barn on most coming from wide-open looks.

Yet UConn nailed four of its last five attempts to cap the comeback, none bigger than the last off the fingertips with 0.4 seconds left from the kid who grew up in Greenfield, Ind., just 26 miles away from Lucas Oil Stadium which will host the team’s third Final Four in four years.

“I saw Braylon, and for some reason I had the gut instinct to pass it to him,” said Karaban, having won his 17th career tournament game by saving his lone three-pointer of the night for the final minute. “I had Cam Boozer in front of me, which was a harder, more difficult shot, so I passed it to Braylon.”

“We’ve dug out of many holes,” said Solo Ball, who was the fourth starter in double digits with 10 points. “We’ve done this so many times, I think we’re prepared for it.”

For it to come against Duke only added to the majesty and mettle that it took to even get in such a position. The Blue Devils were finally healthy going into the game and sported one of the nation’s most devastating offenses with a defense that never wavered far below third in KenPom’s efficiency rankings.

More than that though, they had the game won until it wasn’t, with both Boozer brothers nearly outscoring UConn alone (29 to 27) at halftime. No. 1 seeds were previously 134–0 in NCAA men’s tournament history when leading by 15 at the break, too.

But now there’s a one attached to that stat courtesy of the single play that mattered in the end.

“I just feel like I failed,” said Cayden Boozer in a morose locker room. “I knew they were going to double me. I saw two guys open, just trying to get down there as quick as I can. [Isaiah Evans] and [Patrick Ngongba II] were both down there. They would have had to foul, [Evans] who was by percentage our best free throw shooter. That’s what was in my mind. Obviously, I’m going to replay that for the rest of my life.”

So, too, will his coach Jon Scheyer, who has notably engineered wins in all six games his team trailed by double digits but has seen a habit of blowing things when up big. Sunday was the third time Duke blew a 13-point or larger lead in its last four losses—dating back to last season’s collapse against Houston in the Final Four.

Against UConn, the Blue Devils outshot the Huskies from beyond the arc and were better at the line, too. They outrebounded their opponents by six and had more second-chance points. But 13 turnovers, including four by the Boozer brothers down the stretch run, led to 20 points the other way and another stunning collapse late.

“I could not be more disappointed and feeling for our guys, at the same time of just trying to process what happened. I don’t have the words. I don’t have the words,” said Scheyer, looking lost before at least mustering up a few more. “I look at every play that happened, especially in that second half, this is not about one play. It’s about every play that put us in that position, and that’s what you don’t want to do, where one play something could happen.”

It just did, however, to spoil the winningest two-year stretch in the country—with multiple lottery picks in tow—and turn the narrative back over to the true serial winners with the hardware in Storrs, Conn., to show what it takes.

“To get to the Final Four three times in four years, I got emotional because it’s unreal,” Karaban said. “I started crying with Coach and he told me to stop crying.”

“I mean, the ’23 and ’24 teams, they just smashed everybody. We just ran through this tournament like it was nothing. So this was more of a team that had to be clutch, that’s had to be clutch the whole year,” Hurley said. “We’ve had to win a lot of close games throughout the year, and I think that that obviously just gave us a level of comfortability in a game that it’s a one-possession game, it’s a two-possession game—we’ve been in this spot before.”

UConn guard Solo Ball scores against Duke forward Cameron Boozer during the Elite Eight. | Amber Searls-Imagn Images

UConn will now be aiming for history in Mullins’s home state, not just in seeking a third title as part of this potentially dynastic run, but to serve as a selfish streak-buster against three others. Saturday’s opponent, Illinois, has never cut down the final nets and will join Michigan in trying to end a 26-year run of futility on this stage by the Big Ten. Arizona has waited even longer (since 1997) and carries with it the hopes of the entire West Coast that has been barren of such a trophy for nearly 30 years.

Those are thoughts for another day though, even after having taken nearly an hour of wading through confetti to get every UConn player and staff member back to the locker room to put a bow on one of the best tournament games ever.

“You have to have the guys believe in everything you’re trying to get them to do, but you can’t afford to make mistakes anymore,” says Bob Hurley Sr., the patriarch who is no stranger to making Final Four trips for either of his two sons, Dan and former Duke guard Bobby. “They whittled it away, and then they got to making some difficult shots at the rim. I think we did a great job around the basket for changing shots. Then they hit a couple of threes from each side and, you know what people say, the law of averages were certainly with us. Karaban made the big one, Demary made the two corner threes and then the miraculous.”

The Miraculous Miracle from Mullins it is—set to be remembered forever.

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