5-star basketball recruit cuts his list of schools, and Kentucky isn’t in the picture

One of the best shooters in the 2025 recruiting class has trimmed his list of colleges still under consideration to three schools. And Mark Pope and Kentucky failed to make the cut.

On Tuesday, five-star shooting guard Braylon Mullins announced that he would be deciding between Indiana, North Carolina and two-time defending national champions UConn for college.

Mullins, an Indiana native who is 6-foot-5 and 180 pounds, rocketed up the recruiting rankings this spring and summer thanks to standout performances on the Adidas grassroots circuit with Indiana Elite, where he was teammates with class of 2025 Kentucky commit Malachi Moreno. According to Synergy Sports, Mullins was the fifth-most efficient player on offense during the Adidas grassroots season.

Mullins made 80 jump shots for Indiana Elite during the Adidas 3SSB season, which was the third-most among all players in the 17-and-under age group.

Mullins — who averaged 18.9 points per game and 1.1 points per possession for Indiana Elite this year — is ranked as a five-star recruit by the 247Sports Composite and as the No. 23 overall prospect in the 2025 class.

UK has commitments in the 2025 recruiting class from guard Jasper Johnson (the No. 14 overall recruit) and Moreno (No. 24).

Previously, Mullins had a top-10 list of schools. The schools that were part of that list that are no longer being considered by Mullins are Alabama, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Purdue and Tennessee.

Mullins picked up a Kentucky scholarship offer from Pope in June while Mullins was on an unofficial visit to the UK campus.

Mullins was slated to take an official visit to Kentucky on Oct. 25, a weekend trip that would have coincided with a UK football home game against Auburn. Obviously, that visit will no longer take place.

UK was viewed earlier this summer as one of the likeliest landing spots for Mullins, who plays high school basketball in Greenfield, Indiana, located about 25 miles east of Indianapolis.

247Sports national basketball analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader earlier this summer that UK was becoming more and more of a factor in Mullins’ recruitment.

It didn’t hurt that Pope’s first class of 2025 commitment at UK came from Moreno, who is close friends with Mullins.

But recent discourse had focused on the potential backcourt pairing of Johnson and Mullins and their fit together, fueled by comments made by Mullins’ father to David Sisk of Rivals.

Earlier this summer, the Herald-Leader asked Zach Welch, an analyst for Pro Insight Basketball, what kind of backcourt players UK should target to pair with Johnson and Moreno.

“Kentucky might do well to target a downhill guard that can operate in the pick-and-roll and toggle on and off the ball,” Welch said. “A guard that puts pressure on the rim consistently and can operate out of these advantage situations will generate better shooting windows for Johnson and complement Moreno’s pick-and-roll versatility, as well.”

With Mullins now out of the picture, who else is UK recruiting to pair with Johnson in the backcourt of its 2025 recruiting class?

Kentucky is still pursuing class of 2025 guards Mikel Brown Jr., Brayden Burries and Acaden Lewis.

Brown will take an official visit to UK that starts Friday. He’s also reportedly visiting Louisville this week.

Lewis recently named UK in his top-four list of schools and is expected to also take a fall official visit to Lexington.

Mullins’ choice to longer take his planned official visit to UK comes after five-star small forward Tounde Yessoufou, who was scheduled to visit UK for Big Blue Madness, also announced he was dropping the Wildcats from consideration.

Across the board, Kentucky’s recruiting numbers for Big Blue Madness — to be held Oct. 11 inside Rupp Arena — will likely be down due to overlap with a USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team minicamp that’s taking place the same weekend in Colorado and is set to feature a number of UK recruiting targets.

Kentucky basketball still in contention for top point guard, and other UK recruiting news

How UK’s new basketball commits fit together and which recruits are targeted to join them.

Kentucky native Jasper Johnson commits to UK basketball. What are the Wildcats getting?

Why Malachi Moreno’s pledge to UK basketball was so important for the Pope recruiting era

Mark Pope is looking for UK basketball recruits. Here’s what’s ‘super important’ to him.