Greenfield Central Graduate and 2025 Indiana Mr. Basketball Braylon Mullins Send UConn to the Final Four in Indianapolis The No. 1 seeded Duke men’s basketball team was in control of most of its Elite 8 matchup on Sunday against No. 2 seeded UConn. But it was the Huskies who had the last laugh, winning 73-72. Greenfield-Central High School graduate Braylon Mullins was the hero for the Huskies, who hit the game-winning three-pointer for the Huskies with under a second to play. UConn will face No. 3 seeded Illinois in the Final Four on Saturday inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
“There’s no words. There’s no description. It’s just awe.” Mullins magic in March. Greenfield, Indiana, native Braylon Mullins turned into a March Madness legend with his game-winning shot from the logo to send UConn to the Final Four — a surreal moment for his parents who witnessed it all from the Capitol One Arena stands in Washington D.C. “It went through, and it was pandemonium. I blacked out,” Mullins’ mom Katie said. “I don’t remember exactly what was happening. I know I was crying very, very hard.”
“I think I yelled so hard that I thought I was going to pass out,” Mullins’ dad Josh said. “I had to go down to my knees for a minute. I was like, ‘Man, I just yelled too much.’ I can’t even describe the feeling. Everything was in slow motion.” The unforgettable moment was made even more special when Mullins’ parents were able to sneak down to the court to give their son — who is just a freshman for the Huskies — a congratulatory hug. “I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh! Did that just happen?’ And I just hugged him really, really tight, and he had the biggest smile on his face. That moment I will always remember,” Katie said.
No one in his hometown of Greenfield will be forgetting that shot any time soon, either, especially his high school coach Luke Meredith. “As soon as it left his hands, I knew it was going in, because that’s just who he is. You’re surprised when he misses,” Meredith said. “Now he’s always going to be synonymous with March Madness. They should put a statue out in front of him at UConn. He’ll never have to buy a meal at UConn in Storrs, Connecticut ever again.”
Less than two years ago, UConn head basketball coach Dan Hurley himself was in Greenfield’s gym trying to recruit Mullins to the Huskies. His pitch? “We’ll bring you right back to Indy for the Final Four.” Well, it was Indiana’s Mr. Basketball that made that dream reality. “They had it lined up, and it had Philly to DC to Indy. They said, ‘This is what we want to do,’” Katie said, remembering the recruiting visits. “But the fact that he took the shot to bring them back? That’s another… that’s crazy. That’s mind-boggling, actually.”
“I don’t know if you could script this,” Josh said. “I don’t know how this is happening, but it is, and it’s awesome, because that could have been a shot to go to Phoenix, Arizona, for the Final Four. But he’s literally coming back to Indy.” Mullins returns to Indy after a disappointing finish to his high school career last season. Greenfield-Central lost to Mt. Vernon after needing double overtime in the sectional championship. It’s that ending that has motivated Mullins even more. “I told him that, ‘You can rewrite your narrative from your high school stuff where you didn’t win, and you can rewrite this book if you want. The pen’s in your hand. It’s your narrative now,’ and he went and wrote it,” Josh said.
His parents say “proud” is an understatement when talking about their son. “He’s stayed grounded throughout this whole process that he’s been going through for two, three years,” Katie said. “Kid from Greenfield. Now he’s in a spotlight, and he could be someone totally different, but he’s never going to be. He’s a very humble child, and that makes me proud.” “I think this community, us, people are just so proud of him for the things he’s done – not just because of the shot. He’s a good person. He’s a good kid. I think those things matter. I think that’s why a lot of people love him,” Josh said. The Greenfield community continues to rally around him.
“He is Greenfield’s own, and that’s what makes him special,” Meredith said. “We’re a public school. We’re on the east side of Indianapolis. Little ol’ Greenfield. So now to see a kid that is our hometown guy, and just to see the support… we’re beaming here at Greenfield-Central, and we’ll continue to beam this weekend as he performs on a national level.” And he’ll do it in front of dozens of friends and family.
Indiana University Men’s Tennis takes down Purdue The No. 60 Indiana men’s tennis team defeated Purdue 4-1 Friday at the IU Tennis Center. Indiana won the doubles point for the 13th time in 16 matches this season. Jip van Assendelft and Facundo Yunis won at No. 1 doubles, and Sam Landau and Braeden Gelletich won at No. 2 doubles. Landau and Gelletich improved to 4-0 in dual matches as a doubles team this season. Aidan Atwood opened singles play with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Stefan Simeunovic at No. 5. Purdue won the first set in four of the six singles matches, but Indiana rallied for the clinching wins. Yunis defeated Maj Premzl 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3, and Gelletich defeated Juan David Velasquez 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 at No. 4 to clinch the match.
Purdue’s lone win came at No. 6, where Jacob Lee defeated Aryan Badlani 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5). Two singles matches were left unfinished. At No. 1, Landau had tied his match against Nour Fathalla at one set apiece after winning the second set in a 7-6 (2) tiebreak. At No. 2, van Assendelft led Henrik Villanger 7-6 (5), 6-6 (3-1) when play ended. Indiana has now won eight of the last 10 meetings against Purdue. The Hoosiers return to action Friday, April 3, at Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Match time is 7 p.m.
Indiana University Baseball Swept at Nebraska Clutch hitting with two outs was the story of the weekend as Nebraska (22-6, 8-1 B1G) completed a sweep of the Indiana Baseball team (10-17, 3-9 B1G) with a 12-4 win on Sunday afternoon at Haymarket Field in Lincoln, Nebraska. In all three games of the series, IU had the contest within one run but couldn’t find an answer for the Huskers down the stretch. The Hoosiers have been swept in three of four true road series this year. The Hoosiers opened the game on the right foot with a pair of runs in the first inning. An RBI double from sophomore outfielder Hogan Denny and an RBI single from Caleb Koskie put IU up 2-0 in the first inning. With the bases loaded and one out, IU had a chance to break the game open early. A pop out and a strikeout ended the best threat of the game with just two runs across. Nebraska’s offense jumped all over IU pitching on Sunday afternoon.
Graduate student Gavin Seebold (L, 1-2) did his best to limit damage but was extended beyond his normal pitch count. He was eventually tagged for six runs (five earned) in 3.1 innings of action. Sophomore southpaw Brayton Thomas allowed two runs in 3.1 innings of work. It was the fourth time this season that IU gave up 15-or-more hits in a game. A solo home run from freshman second baseman Landen Fry tied the game in the top of the sixth but the Huskers responded with nine unanswered runs in the next two innings. IU would scratch a fourth run across in the eighth inning, but it would make no difference in the final outcome. IU will return to action this week with a midweek game at Evansville (March 31). The month of April begins next weekend with a visit from Rutgers (April 3-5) at Bart Kaufman Field.
Indiana University Women’s Tennis Falls to Nebraska After a back-and-forth battle on the courts, Indiana women’s tennis (12-7, 2-5 B1G) fell 2-4 to No. 48 Nebraska (11-5, 4-3 B1G) on Sunday afternoon at the IU Outdoor Tennis Center. The decision came down to singles No. 5 and No.1, both going to Nebraska in the third set as the Hoosiers fell 2-4. After sophomore Chase Boyer and senior Nicole Teodosescu took down their Nebraska opponent as doubles No. 3 (6-1), the Cornhuskers were able to claw back with wins at courts one and two to secure the doubles point (6-4). All Hoosiers found success in their first set in singles play, with each court having the Indiana advantage after the first set. Freshman Alessandra Teodosescu took control at singles No. 2, quickly securing her match with a victory (6-1,6-0) to make it one-all (1-1). After Nebraska took singles No. 4, Sophomore Nicole Sifuentes contributed to the effort with a close court six victory, bringing each set to extra points (7-6,7-5) to again tie the contest, 2-2. Indiana hits the road to the East Coast to face Rutgers on Friday at 12 p.m and Maryland on Sunday at 12 p.m.
Indiana Hoosiers Men’s Golf Send Four Individuals to Don Benbow Butler Spring Invitational The Indiana men’s golf program will send four individuals to compete in the Don Benbow Butler Spring Invitational from March 30-31. The two-day, 54-hole event will be played at the Highland Country Club in Indianapolis. There are 15 Teams competing which include Ball State, Butler, Detroit Mercy, Evansville, Indian Hills, Indiana, IU Indianapolis, Oakland, Ohio State, Purdue Fort Wayne, Robert Morris, SIU Edwardsville, Southern Indiana, West Virginia, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Youngstown State. The Indiana Lineup includes. Neri Checcucci, Caleb Schnarr, Taneesh Sirivolu and Ethan Chelf who all will play as individuals
Indiana, with four individuals, will not factor into the team standings. The Hoosiers will be paired with individuals from Ball State, Ohio State, and West Virginia on day one. The field will be re-paired prior to the third round. The first two rounds will tee off at 9 a.m. ET with a shotgun start. and the final round will begin at 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday. The tournament is named in honor of the late Don Benbow, who was inducted into the Butler Athletics Hall of Fame for his contributions as a standout football student-athlete, golf and football coach, and his time at Butler as an athletics administrator.
Notre Dame Women’s Basketball Season comes to a Close with an Elite 8 Loss to UConn All-America forward Sarah Strong and her UConn teammates got quite a compliment from Geno Auriemma, their coach who donned a cowboy hat and did a little dance on the court after the undefeated Huskies made their 25th Final Four in the women’s NCAA Tournament. The 12-time championship coach who has more wins than any men’s or women’s NCAA coach said he has never been prouder of a group that he has taken to the final weekend of March Madness. “This group, they don’t have that kind of swagger, trash-talking kind of mentality,” Auriemma said after his 1,288th victory. “It’s not the kind of team that I’ve had in the past that has gone this far undefeated. It’s not. They don’t have that kind of mentality off the court, on the court. They’re just a bunch of really nice kids that play hard for each other.” While this is a younger group for Auriemma after Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 WNBA draft pick, and Kaitlyn Chen were seniors on last year’s championship team, UConn (38-0) has won 54 games in a row and clinched the first spot for this year’s Final Four.
“He doesn’t say anything he doesn’t mean. He doesn’t give out compliments too often, depending on who you are,” said All-America guard Azzi Fudd, the fifth-year senior on this squad who had 13 points, four assists and three steals. “So to hear him say that it does mean a lot, and we feel the same way. We love this team so much.” Hannah Hidalgo had 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Fighting Irish (25-11), plus three more steals to increase her NCAA single-season record to 202 and single NCAA tourney mark to 29. But she also had five turnovers, the first time in her 10 NCAA tourney games with more turnovers than steals.
The ninth NCAA tourney meeting between the Huskies and the Irish was their first with a spot in the Final Four on the line. They had both made it that far the first eight times they met in March Madness, the last in 2019 when Notre Dame won a semifinal game over UConn and then lost to Baylor in the title game. This meeting in the Fort Worth Regional 1 final was the first time Notre Dame had made it past the Sweet 16 since then. While the game was closer than January 19 when UConn won by 38 points in the most-lopsided game in the 57-game series (UConn leads 41-16), the Irish couldn’t overcome the rolling Huskies. “They’re very, very physical. They try to take away every option that you have,” Irish coach Niele Ivey said. “They’re very disciplined. They play well together, and they just play hard.”
During a nearly five-minute stretch in the third quarter when UConn went scoreless while missing 11 consecutive shots, the Irish got no closer than eight points. Hidalgo had a jumper and two free throws for their only points but also was responsible for three of their four turnovers in that span. That included Fudd’s steal from Hidalgo and Jana El Alfy’s layup that ended the scoring drought and put the Huskies up 40-30 with 3:51 left in the third quarter. UConn took its first double-digit lead with six points in a 59-second span in the second quarter, soon after Hidalgo furiously responded when she thought she was fouled on a 3-point attempt that was instead a blocked shot by Strong.
That led to a driving layup by Quiñonez, who followed by rebounding a miss by Hidalgo and assisting on a breaking layup by Allie Ziebell. Quiñonez, the Big East freshman and sixth player of the year, then had a steal that led to a pullup jumper by Fudd for a 30-20 lead with 2:56 left in the first half. “As always, I just try to bring something to the court, impact the game, as coach says,” Quiñonez said. “And I think everyone was locked in and I think everybody was ready to play that game.”
Pascal Siakam Scores 30 Points as the Indiana Pacers beat the Miami Heat Pascal Siakam scored 30 points and Micah Potter added 21 and tied a career high with five 3-pointers to help the Indiana Pacers get past the Miami Heat for a rare victory, 135-118 on Sunday. Siakam also had 11 rebounds and six assists for short-handed Indiana. Potter scored 19 points and made all of his 3s as part of a flurry of 13 first half 3-pointers for the Pacers. Kobe Brown was one of five other Indiana players to score in double figures. He had a career-high 18 points as Indiana won for just the second time since the All-Star break. The Pacers finished with 18 3s in their 17th win, matching Brooklyn and Washington for the fewest victories in the NBA this season.
Miami’s loss was yet another potentially damaging blow to its fading hopes of avoiding the play-in tournament and earning a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Heat have lost seven of their last eight games. Tyler Herro scored 23 of his 31 points in the first half and Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 17 for the Heat. All-Star Bam Adebayo finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Indiana finally took control of the fast-paced, high-scoring contest with two late runs after Brown’s 3 with 4 seconds left in the third quarter gave the Pacers a 108-107 lead. Miami scored four straight early in the fourth to take a 111-110 lead, but Indiana answered with an 11-2 run to make it 121-113 before closing the game on a 14-3 spurt to close it out. Miami played without guard Norman Powell, who sat out because of an upper respiratory infection.