Welcome to Mullins Drive: How a small Indiana town is embracing its new March legend

GREENFIELD, Ind. -- Sometimes stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason: because they are well-earned, accurate representations of a people. Texans love brisket. New Yorkers love F-bombs. And the folks in Indiana -- especially John Mellencamp-serenaded "Well, I was born in a small town" folks of Indiana -- they really, really love basketball. From Indianapolis, where the airport currently greets those arriving to town for the men's Final Four with an exhibition in the terminal of everyone from Bobby Knight and Butler to Wabash and Valparaiso, to a state map spotted with hamlets, villages and crossroads that have gifted us the likes of Larry Bird, Damon Bailey, Bobby Plump...

And now, Braylon Mullins.

"How's the saying go?" asks Luke Meredith, Mullins' high school coach, knowing that we know that he knows the answer. "In 49 states, it's just basketball ... but this is Indiana."

Meredith said those words as he was walking out of Lucas Oil Stadium on Friday afternoon, one of an estimated 25,000 people who showed up to watch this year's men's Final Four squads hold four largely ceremonial practice sessions. Many of them were there to see a pair of Illinois players -- Indianapolis product Jake Davis and Ben Humrichous of tiny Tipton, Indiana, 40 miles north of the city -- or UConn's freshman student manager, Jack Richason of Carmel.

But the biggest roar was reserved for Mullins. He who less than a week ago launched one of the most memorable shots in NCAA tournament history, a dagger 3-pointer with less than half a second remaining to torpedo Duke, send Connecticut to the Final Four, and bring Mullins back home to Indiana.

"When [UConn head coach] Dan Hurley was here recruiting Braylon, he was with [assistant] Luke Murray," Meredith recalled as he walked the streets of Indy to meet up with the Mullins family so they could go to "the real practice."

"When they signed him, they said to us, 'We're going to bring him back to Indiana for the Final Four next year.' Well, right after he hit that shot, I texted them: 'You did what you promised. Now I'm going to need some tickets!'"

Everyone in Greenfield needs tickets. It's a town located 27 miles east of Lucas Oil Stadium with nearly the exact same population as Friday's practice audience. And that town plans on spending this weekend leaning into every damn "Hoosiers" scene and stereotype that the rest of us can conjure up. That includes multiple caravans down U.S. Highway 40 -- aka the Historic National Road, aka "The Road That Built the Nation" -- just like all those Studebakers and Hudsons following the Hickory High team bus to Indy for those fictional state finals.

In fact, the bus used in the movie, as well as the 1951 Chevy coupe driven by Gene Hackman, both reside in Greenfield. Their owners will both be happy to show up to your local event for a booking fee. And they both routinely drive those iron beasts east to nearby Knightstown, 12 miles away, site of the Hoosier Gym that was the home court for the Oscar-nominated film. You can shoot hoops there, too. Just like Jimmy Chitwood ... and maybe Mullins, too? The Hoosier Gym hosts youth games all the time, and during a visit there Friday, the volunteers who keep the gym open were pretty sure that Braylon Mullins played there as a kid. Maybe.

"I mean, he had to, right?"

"Hey, even if he didn't, let's just say he did. It's good for business."

Any affiliation with Mullins is good for business. That's why over at The Depot, a train station-turned-watering hole, they have a framed No. 24 UConn jersey hanging over the servers' station. The same servers will gladly tell you that when Hurley came to town it was "right at that table over there" where he hunkered down with the Mullins family to try to convince them that Storrs was, as Hurley described it recently, "a small, rural town just like Greenfield, just with more snow."

The Depot is located at the intersection of Depot and Pennsylvania Streets, though right now, Depot Street has been renamed Braylon Avenue. A little farther up Pennsylvania, near the Mullins' home, is now Mullins Drive, the blue sign affixed with a couple of 24s.

That was the brainchild of the mayor and the street commissioner. They tried to go one better than that and have the lights on the I-70 overpass that leads to Greenfield switched to UConn's colors, but the LEDs didn't have the right shade of blue.

And sure, that would have been cool, but there was plenty of Huskies hue on the Greenfield-Central High marquee "GC IS PROUD OF YOU BRAYLON," not to mention all the UConn stickers on all the trucks around town, a few slapped onto bumpers right next to Indiana Hoosiers 2026 College Football Playoff national title decals. Besides, I-70 was already taken care of. On the hammer-down road to Indy, an electronic billboard located right at the goodbye border of Greenfield's Hancock County featured an image of Connecticut's men's and women's Final Four squads, with Mullins placed front and center.

"For me, it's a crazy experience, being able to see all the family and friends and just playing in front of the home state of Indiana just means more than anything," Mullins said earlier in the week, adding that he had managed to secure 15 tickets for family and friends for Saturday's semifinals. "And maybe people will learn about Greenfield. It's a great place to grow up."

Not only for him and his twin brothers, Cole and Clay, who are seniors at Central and signed to play for Division III Franklin University next year. Greenfield is also where his parents, Josh and Katie, have lived their entire lives, save for their own college experiences.

Katie's family has been farming outside of Greenfield reaching all the way back to post-Civil War reconstruction. Josh is third generation Greenfield, the descendant of Kentuckians-turned-Indianians -- so becoming a basketball player was predestined. The couple first met in second grade and became pals. At Central, Josh played hoops while Katie cheered, and eventually Josh wised up and -- as a 3-point specialist should do -- shot his shot. (He did it on Valentine's Day, no less.) They did a turn in junior college in Illinois before landing at IUPUI in Indianapolis, now known as IU-Indy.

That's where Josh was a forward on the only Jaguars team to place in the NCAA tournament, a spot earned through a 2003 Mid-Continent Conference championship game nail-biter, defeating Valparaiso 66-64. Josh made the all-tourney team.

"We were a 16-seed and played Kentucky in the first round," Mullins recalled earlier in the week. He scored eight points, but the Wildcats -- the SEC champs and No. 1 team in the nation -- won 95-64. "My highlight was just making it into the tournament. Now Braylon's in the Final Four."

Cruising around Greenfield on Friday, it seemed as if the entire town were in the Final Four. From the Central students in their UConn hoodies to the six-pack of blue-collar workers spending their lunch break on the back deck of The Depot, agreeing to return Saturday for the big-screen viewing party, to the still-new city limit signs that greet any visitors who might, as Mullins hopes, be curious to come see what his hometown is all about. As it reads, across the street from Koenig John Deere and Superior Mowers:

WELCOME TO GREENFIELD, INDIANA. EXPERIENCE OUR PAST...SHARE OUR FUTURE.
HOME OF JAYCIE PHELPS 1996 USA GYMNASTICS GOLD MEDALIST
BRAYLON MULLINS 2025 INDIANA MR. BASKETBALL

"What people love most about him is that he is still the same guy he was, even now, after everyone in the world knows who he is," former coach Meredith explained Friday. "He was just in the hallways of our high school this time last year. He grew up so close to the school he could walk there. He's still Braylon. He's still his mom and dad. He's still Greenfield."

Prior to the Duke game, Greenfield's most famous citizen had always been James Whitcomb Riley. A century ago, he was the leader of what's known as the golden age of Indiana literature. Riley wrote with a distinctive Indiana dialect, penning poems beloved by children around the world, including "Little Orphan Annie" and "The Raggedy Man."

Every fall, fittingly on the eve of college basketball season, Greenfield hosts the Riley Festival to celebrate the man and his work. In last year's parade, the Hoosiers team bus and coach's Chevy were in the lineup. Just this week, town officials joked that they might have to make it the Riley/Braylon Festival. At least, we think they were joking.

But Friday, while half the town was at Lucas Oil Stadium to watch Mullins practice, a group of kids followed their moms, waddling their way along the Riley Arts Trail, located alongside Riley Avenue, one block over from Braylon Avenue. That trail is marked by quotes from the poet, painted onto the concrete.

It's easy to imagine one day, long after Braylon Mullins is done playing ball and, like Josh and Katie, inevitably finds his way back home to Greenfield, that he might sit there in the amphitheater, telling seemingly tall but true tales of Duke and daggers and that time his hometown caravaned down to the big city to watch him try and win a national championship. Perhaps he'll just point to one of those James Whitcomb Riley sidewalk quotes. The one titled "A Ballad."

Crowd about me,
little children --
Come and cluster
'round my knee
While I tell a little story
that happened once with me.