Louisville’s Brown passes Flagg mark while tying legend Unseld
LOUISVILLE—Clearly aware he had a hot hand, Mikel Brown Jr. wanted to see what scoring heights he could reach before cooling off.
The heralded Louisville guard ended up topping the Atlantic Coast Conference’s (ACC) most recent freshman phenom and matching a Hall of Famer and Cardinals’ legend.
Brown hit a career-best 10 three-pointers and scored 45 points to break Cooper Flagg’s ACC single-game scoring mark of 42 set last season as No. 24 Louisville routed NC State, 118-77, on Monday night. His total also tied Wes Unseld’s Louisville scoring mark against Georgetown College on Dec. 1, 1967.
“I did not know,” Brown said when asked about the Unseld record on a night in which he shot 14-of-23 from the field and 10-of-16 from long distance. He also made all seven free throws, grabbed nine rebounds, had three steals and two assists.
“To be honest, I was just so locked in with just staying with it and just not having it drop off,” he said. “Just maintaining my aggressiveness and my will to create for myself and for others as well. I think the gravity that was being pulled toward me kind of opened up everybody else and we had walk-in layups and was getting open shots.
“I definitely wasn’t thinking about the record until they (teammates) just came to me, and I’m like, I’m going to go get it.”
Fittingly, Brown’s record-tying triple came dead center from just past Louisville’s dunking Cardinals logo. Had Brown not juggled the ball while going up for a dunk earlier in the second half, he might’ve had the Louisville record all to himself.
Not that being mentioned alongside a Louisville Hall of Famer—or prospective NBA rookie of the year favorite—was a bad thing.
“That means a lot, just because he’s a legend,” Brown said of matching Unseld. “I couldn’t do this without my teammates. They encourage me every single day to be myself and to stay aggressive and just be free.”
