Five-Star Freshman, Likely Top-10 Pick Erupts in Recent Victory

The 2025-26 freshman class continues to impress.

AJ Dybantsa, Kingston Flemings and Keaton Wagler each scored more than 40 points on the same day, while Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, Caleb Wilson, Darius Acuff Jr., and others have also had their share of big moments.

With March Madness approaching, a number of first-year players have played well in big-time matchups recently as their team fights for NCAA Tournament seeding.

On Monday night, another freshman prospect had a huge performance after missing an earlier portion of the season. Mikel Brown Jr. scored a career-high 45 points while shooting 14-of-23, 10-of-16 from 3-point range and 7-of-7 from the free throw line.

Brown also notched 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals, helping Louisville to a 118-77 win against NC State. With the victory, the No. 24-ranked Cardinals improved to 18-6 overall and 8-4 in the ACC.

Coming into Monday's contest, Brown was averaging 15.4 points, 5.3 assists and 2.9 rebounds while shooting 36.4% from the field and 26.9% from beyond the arc. The highly touted freshman missed more than a month of the season with an injury, and has been inconsistent since his return.

Brown scored 20 points twice in his first five games back from injury, shooting a combined 4-of-30 in the other three contests. The talented guard's outing against NC State marked his six time scoring at least 20 points this season, and his first time surpassing 30 points.

Brown's performance against NC State, though, is an eye-opening glimpse at Brown's potential.

While the former five-star recruit has been up and down this year, Brown's upside is clearly evident, meaning he will likely garner intrigue from teams at the top of the 2026 NBA Draft. Coming out of high school, the Orlando product was rated the No. 6 overall player and No. 2 point guard in the 2025 recruiting class by 247Sports.

Listed at 6-foot-5 and 190 pounds, Brown has decent size to go along with solid feel for the game and the potential to be a good shooter. If the Cardinals' standout can develop more consistency as a shooter, he could be an adequate lead guard at the next level.

In a recent projection for NBA Draft on SI, Derek Parker paired Brown with the Brooklyn Nets at No. 7 overall.

The 19-year-old would add a premier point guard prospect to the Nets' roster, which contiains a few intriguing young players from recent draft classes.

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