WASHINGTON — The ten seconds that led to the Braylon Mullins’ miracle shot were a series of reflex plays, reactions, the ultimate in instincts taking over, living in the split second, rather than in the moment.

And yet, the seed was sown, the chain of events that placed a teenager from Greenfield, Ind., 35 or so feet from the basket Sunday at Capital One Arena, with 19,000 in the building and the rest of the basketball world watching, was set in motion nearly two years ago.

“When I saw him release it, I was like, ‘that really might go in,'” Alex Karaban said. “It went in, and the Indiana kid sent us to Indianapolis. Like that one? I’ve been using it a lot lately.”

Mullin’s shot, which fell with 0.3 seconds on the clock, lifted the Huskies to a 73-72 victory over Duke in In the East Regional final and into the Final Four, where they will play Illinois in the national semifinal Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET, a 20-minute drive from his home.

“When I was recruited, that was the pitch,” Mullins said. “‘Hey, we’re going to take you to Indy.’ And that was the wrap-up moment of my official visit to UConn. I always knew, it was in the back of my head, you’re going to play to go back home. Man, it’s unbelievable, how hard it was to get to this point. Philly to Washington to Indy, it’s crazy Coach Hurley predicted that.”

UConn was coming off back-to-back championships when Dan Hurley and the coaches identified Mullins as their must-have from the Class of 2025. His title recipe calls for one high-end talent, capable and hungry, but without sense of entitlement, to jump to the NBA with one year of college, surrounded by experienced players who’d maintained the culture, and hand-picked transfers who could fit in. Stephon Castle was the one-and-done in 2024, Liam McNeeley last season. Now in October 2024, Mullins was the “it” kid, and he had the 2026 East Regional bracket on the screen.

“We do a recruiting video, kind of going through his whole upbringing in basketball, make it like a 30 for 30 type of preview,” Hurley said, “and we end that with a slide of Philly, D.C., ‘this is where we’re going your freshman year.’ When we recruited him we were back-to-back champions, so it wasn’t a hard pitch telling a recruit from Indiana, after going back to back, that we’re going to bring you home to Indy.”

Mullins was slowed by injuries early in the year, but always showed flashes of that pretty shot, a form that can’t be taught. It would disappear, though, at inopportune times. Like Sunday, Mullins missed his first four 3-point attempts, then shied away from shooting.

But always Hurley would remind him of natural talent, setting aside “Bringer of Rain” to give Mullins a new nickname, “Munson,” the name of the absurd character Woody Harrelson created for the movie "Kingpin" — released a decade before Mullins was born.

“The early bowling scene in that movie where a young Woody Harrelson is in the yard with his Dad learning how to bowl,” Hurley said. “He throws a strike and his Dad says, ‘your hand has been blessed by God … the way that the bowling ball leaves your hand is blessed by God.’ So he’s got the Munson nickname, and I’ve also been feeding him Munson chocolates throughout the NCAA Tournament, chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate covered Oreos.”

It all looked like a lot of empty calories for most of the day Sunday. Mullins, Karaban, Solo Ball, no one could hit a perimeter shot. Tarris Reed Jr.’s work in the post kept the Huskies from getting completely blown out, but they missed 17 of their first 18 on threes and trailed by as many as 19 before starting to come back.

With 10 seconds to go, instincts took over, for better and worse, on both sides. All Duke had to do was dribble it out, wait for UConn, trailing by two, to foul someone. “We were just trying to foul the worst free-throw shooter on the floor,” Mullins said.

But Cayden Boozer tried to pass the ball forward. UConn’s Silas Demary Jr. deflected it, Mullins grabbed it. “I was trying to pass it to somebody who’d hit one,” Mullins said.

That was Karaban, who was just outside the 3-point arc, but had two defenders closing in. If the captain, the two-time champ who’s hit a bunch of clutch shots these last four years, tried to force a shot, no one could blame him. But he tossed it back to the freshman.

“When I saw Braylon, for some reason I had the gut instinct to pass it to him,” Karaban said.

Mullins glanced up and saw two seconds on the clock, but time froze, the world stopped. With a two-handed push shot right out of 1950s Indiana, right out of another movie, "Hoosiers," Mullins launched it up and in, sweet and pure. “Out of Indiana. They all can shoot. Astounding,” CBS’ Bill Raftery told the TV audience.

“The angst of the turnover, the ooohs and ahhhs of him releasing that ball,” Hurley said, “it will probably be the noise that I’ll never forget. The oh, you-know-what when that shot went up, from Duke fans and UConn fans, you’ll never forget that noise. We’ve not heard noise like that in our tournament runs.”

UConn’s 12 March Madness wins in 2023 and 24 were all by double digits. The Huskies have had to hang on to close games all through this year. In the Round of 16, they blew a 19-point lead, before eventually staving off Michigan State by four. Here they had to outscore Duke by 17 points just to have the ghost of a chance they did when Mullins took his shot.

“From that far, no, on this stage, no,” Mullins said. “I have hit a game-winner, but not like that. Not like that. It’s crazy that was the only one I hit tonight.”

His father, Josh, who taught him to shoot, reminded him of that before their postgame hug. If UConn had hit a few 3s, it might’ve been an easy win. But who’d remember? Mullins remembers Kris Jenkins’ game-winning shot for Villanova in the 2016 NCAA final. “That’s just the one that pops into your head,” Mullins said, “so it’s just crazy now that I can be a part of that little cycle (of highlights) every year during the tournament.”

If this is Mullins’ only season at UConn, as the NBA draft analysts generally agree it will be, he’s gotten what he came for, got what he came for. “My mind is in the present,” he said. “I’m here to play basketball for UConn and everything else can wait til it’s time. I’m so happy to be a part of this program, and represent UConn.”

And he will represent UConn for the rest of his life. Philly to Washington, and back home to Indiana. Promise kept.

“I wasn’t in on those meetings,” Karaban said, “but it’s a smart recruiting pitch. I’ve always said, when Coach Hurley recruits, he’s always honest, he’ll never lie to you. So he didn’t lie to Braylon. We’re going to Indianapolis, like he said.”

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