Potential top-10 pick Louisville G Mikel Brown Jr. declares for 2026 NBA Draft
Potential top-10 pick Louisville G Mikel Brown Jr. declares for 2026 NBA Draft
Nick BrombergTue, April 7, 2026 at 2:16 PM UTC
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Louisville guard Mikel Brown Jr. is off to the NBA.
The freshman guard announced Tuesday that he would enter the 2026 NBA Draft. Brown is a consensus top-10 pick in the June draft and was projected to go No. 10 to the Milwaukee Bucks in Yahoo Sports’ April 2 mock draft.
Brown, who turned 20 on April 3, averaged 18.2 points, 4.7 assists and 3.3 rebounds across 21 games in 2025-26 for the Cardinals. He was the team’s second-leading scorer behind Ryan Conwell, but did not play in the month of March because of a back injury.
“Obviously, it’s just been a dream of mine to be able to be in this position,” Brown told Andscape about his draft decision. “The little kid in me would freaking scream just to know that I have an opportunity to play at the highest level, which has been a dream of mine since I started picking up a basketball. So yeah, I’ll be taking the next step.”
He sat out the ACC tournament with the hope of playing in the NCAA tournament as Louisville was a No. 6 seed. However, Brown ended up missing both of the Cardinals’ March Madness games as Louisville lost in the second round to No. 3 Michigan State.
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Brown dealt with the back injury for much of the season — he missed eight games earlier in the year because of back issues.
When he was on the court, Brown showed why he was one of the best prospects in a loaded draft class. He set the ACC’s freshman record for points in a game when he dropped 45 in a win over NC State on Feb. 9. He followed that game up with back-to-back 29-point games against Baylor and SMU.
His back injury was a reason why Kevin O’Connor had Brown at the back of the top 10 in that mock draft a week ago. Here’s what O’Connor had to say about Brown.
When Brown is in the zone, he has an unstoppable pull-up jumper, an ambidextrous finishing ability and the quick reads to rifle passes before the defense has time to react. He had a 45-point breakout performance in February, but a back injury dogged him throughout his freshman year. The Bucks don’t have much going in the developmental department, so taking a big swing on Brown would make sense. If Brown had stayed healthy, he might be going much higher. And maybe he’ll play his way into that through pre-draft workouts. But for now, the absences muddy the evaluation and leave real questions about his consistency that may not get answered until he’s fully healthy.
Louisville went 24-11 in 2025-26 and was 16-5 in the 21 games that Brown played.
Source: “AOL Sports”
