BOSTON — On Friday night, the No. 4 UConn men’s basketball team faced off against the No. 16 Michigan Wolverines at TD Garden, with the Huskies’ backcourt duo of Braylon Mullins and Silas Demary Jr. combining for 44 points in the 85-77 win.
“I feel like we’re the best backcourt in the country, no matter who we go against on any given night,” Demary said.
In the season opener on Nov. 2, Demary attempted just three shots. Instead of scoring, the Preseason Big East Player of the Year awardee contributed eight assists and eight rebounds in the win.
“There’s going to be nights, just like last time we played in Boston versus BYU where he went for 20-plus [points],” Dan Hurley said after the opener against Gardner-Webb. “Then there’s going to be nights where he’s kind of flirting with a triple-double.”
Fast-forward to Friday’s marquee matchup against No. 16 Michigan, Demary fired off 14 of his 17 shots in the first half, scoring 21 points. It was the most shot attempts Demary has taken since Feb. 2025, to which he let out a chuckle when he heard that statistic.
“Coaches told me to be an All-American point guard. So that’s just being able to go out there and run the offense, and if it’s time to score, score,” Demary said.
Demary picked apart the Wolverine defense in the first half, driving the lane and scoring floaters with ease. Demary also nailed a pair of three-pointers, one of which at the 9:16 mark which he argued should have been an and-1.
Demary’s counterpart, Mullins, opened the game for the Huskies on a wide open three-pointer that resulted in nothing but string music.
A few minutes later, following an offensive rebound, Nik Khamenia used a head fake to scramble the Wolverine defense. He then dished the ball to a wide-open Mullins at the left wing, who hit the triple to force the first Michigan timeout and ignite a deafening U-C-O-N-N chant rippling through TD Garden.
Mullins missed last year’s game at TD Garden against BYU and mentioned he was looking forward to playing this game.
“The environment was great, and UConn brings a crowd. It was definitely exciting,” Mullins said postgame. “I’m hoping many more games in the future it is like that again.”
The sold-out Boston crowd was going bonkers in the first half; boos filled the air every time a fan with a Michigan shirt came up onto the jumbotron, followed up by roars of excitement when a UConn fan would flash on screen.
Unlike the first half, Demary’s first shot attempt came with just under 12 minutes to play in the game, right when Michigan was mounting a brief comeback.
The duo of Mullins and Demary kicked off UConn’s tough nonconference schedule with an impressive performance, proving they are ready for primetime hoops. The end of November sees an even bigger test as UConn faces No. 5 Arizona and No. 2 Duke — two heavyweight showdowns that will truly define how far this backcourt can take them.