Braylon Mullins Scores 20 as No. 4 UConn Routs Gardner-Webb 86-46 for Dan Hurley's 200th Win

Dan Hurley walked out to 50 Cent on Monday night, which tells you most of what you need to know about where UConn basketball's head is at entering 2026-27. The Huskies then went out and played like a team with a grudge, blowing past Gardner-Webb 86-46 in front of a sellout crowd at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford.

The win was Hurley's 200th at UConn. Only Hugh Greer (287) and Jim Calhoun (625) got there before him. Hurley is now 9-0 in season openers at UConn, and the program has won 10 straight. Braylon Mullins led the way with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and four threes, Duke transfer Nik Khamenia added 14, and newcomer Na'jai Hines posted a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double in his Husky debut.

No. 4 UConn is 1-0. Gardner-Webb is 0-1. The real business starts Friday in Boston.

New Faces, Same Machine

It's hard to overstate how much turnover Hurley is managing. Eleven Huskies made their official UConn debuts on Monday, and according to the Associated Press, six of the nine players who saw first-half minutes were wearing the jersey for the first time. Usually that much newness looks clunky in November. This looked like a program that runs the same playbook no matter whose names are on the backs.

UConn scored the first eight points, and Gardner-Webb did not make a field goal until Rue Wells broke through at the 15:38 mark. The lead hit 11-0, then grew past 20 for the first time when Junior County buried a three. Colben Landrew had hit one on the previous trip, and those back-to-back triples made it 29-8 with 7:16 left in the first half.

The Huskies were up 43-24 at the break, and the rebounding margin (22-11) told the story of the half better than the score did. Mullins and Khamenia had nine points apiece by intermission. Gardner-Webb shot 25.5 percent in the first 20 minutes and its starters would finish the night 7-of-31 from the floor.

Mullins Sets the Tone

Mullins is the closest thing UConn has to a returning star, and he played like one. The preseason All-Big East pick scored 11 of his 20 after halftime, knocked down four threes, and posted his fourth career 20-point game. It was the seventh time he has led UConn in scoring.

What stood out was how little Mullins had to force. The second half was a clinic in that respect: UConn shot 55 percent after the break and assisted on 15 of its 17 second-half baskets.

The quarterback of that offense was Silas Demary Jr., who barely looked at the rim. Demary took three shots all night and still filled the box score with eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals. That's a point guard comfortable playing the long game with a roster full of new teammates, and it is exactly the kind of unselfishness Hurley teams have been built on for years.

Jayden Ross played a game-high 29 minutes, scored seven and finished plus-41, the best mark on the team. Those numbers will not trend on social media, but they are the kind that tell you who the coaching staff trusts.

The Newcomers Deliver

Khamenia arrived from Duke this offseason and immediately looked like a fit, tying his career high with 14 points to go with six rebounds and three assists. There's a little extra flavor to that, given UConn ended Duke's season last March with a 73-72 win in the Elite Eight. (Duke, by the way, opened its own season the same night with an 84-50 win over Army.)

Hines, a sophomore transfer, gave UConn the interior presence it needs: 12 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks in 22 minutes. Hines is the first Husky to record a double-double in his UConn debut since Liam McNeeley did it in the 2024-25 opener.

And then there's Landrew, the Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year, who came off the bench for 11 points, five rebounds and three assists while playing starter's minutes. Hurley made it clear afterward that the freshman is going to be a big part of this thing. Per The Daily Campus, Hurley praised Landrew's strength as "a special quality" and said, "If it was a close game, he'd be always in that 24 to 25 range."

Where Hurley Wanted More

This is a Hurley team, so of course the coach found something to be unhappy about in a 40-point win. The target was the frontcourt.

Hines and Oskar Giltay combined for 19 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks on 7-of-11 shooting, which looks great on paper. Hurley didn't love it. "It's rare that you'll see UConn miss 29 shots and only get nine of them back," he said, pointing back to the 22 offensive rebounds UConn grabbed in last season's national title game against Michigan. That's the standard. The Huskies did win the glass 46-28 overall, but Hurley wants his bigs living on the offensive boards, not merely winning the battle.

There's also a rotation question brewing. Nils Machowski, a senior who shot 38.2 percent from three at Wofford last season, played only six minutes after averaging about 16 across the preseason. Hurley said the players who have earned a spot in the top eight or nine will be the ones who play in Boston, which means the next few practices matter.

As for the walkout song, "Many Men (Wish Death)" was apparently news to Hurley too, who said he had never heard it before. He wasn't sure the bit would last. "It may be stupid. We may have to stop doing it," Hurley said.

By the Numbers

The official box score (opens in a new tab) is a portrait of a team that won every phase:

Shooting. UConn hit 31-of-60 from the field (51.7 percent) and 9-of-29 from three. Gardner-Webb went 12-of-47 (25.5 percent).

Turnovers. Gardner-Webb gave it away 17 times to UConn's 10, and the Huskies turned that into a 14-2 edge in points off turnovers. UConn had 10 steals.

Paint and pace. UConn won the paint 42-10 and outscored the Runnin' Bulldogs 21-3 in transition.

The runs. After the 43-24 halftime lead, UConn opened the second half on a 14-5 run to lead 57-29 with 14:10 left. An 11-1 burst later stretched it to 77-38 with 5:40 to play, and Egor Amosov's dunk in the final minute pushed the margin to 40.

The one blemish was the free throw line, where UConn went 15-of-24.

For Gardner-Webb, Jacob Hudson led with nine points, while Seth Brown and Jackson Skipper scored eight apiece, with Skipper adding five rebounds. UConn is now 3-0 all-time in the series, and the first two meetings came within a five-day span back in 2007.

The Take

Monday was about the details for UConn, and the details were mostly good. The defense held a Division I opponent to 25 percent shooting, the ball moved, and the new guys looked like they had been there for years. The 200th win is a nice line on the résumé of a coach whose contract now runs through 2032, but nobody in that building is thinking about milestones.

They're thinking about Friday. UConn faces No. 16 Michigan at 8 p.m. ET in the Hall of Fame Series in Boston, a rematch of April's national championship game, which Michigan won 69-63. Gardner-Webb's next stop was a Thursday trip to No. 7 Texas, and that one went no better. Read UConn's recap (opens in a new tab) for more on the milestone.

If the opener was a tune-up, Friday is the first real exam. UConn has spent seven months waiting for it, and judging by the walkout music, it's not hiding the fact.

Sources: UConn Athletics, the Associated Press, Field Level Media, the Hartford Courant, The Daily Campus. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: UConn Athletics.