LOUISVILLE (USA) - The Louisville Cardinals have had some iconic players on their rosters over the years in American college basketball.
There was Darrell "Dunkenstein" Griffith, "Never Nervous" Pervis Ellison, Milt "Ice" Wagner and NBA Hall of Famer Wes Unseld.
Now the program has Mikel Brown Jr, who drilled 10 3-pointers and scored an ACC record 45 points in the Cardinals' 118-77 blowout of North Carolina State on Monday.
With Brown's FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025 teammate AJ Dybantsa having already electrified college basketball with a 43-point night in a January win over Utah, Brown scored even more!
Dybantsa was the MVP of the U19 World Cup but Brown was also in the All-Star Five after they led the Americans to the title.
FIBA ball fans appreciated Brown's quality before he'd launched a 3 at Louisville because of his performances for USA.
He had 24 points in Group Phase wins over France and Cameroon, and 20 in the Quarter-Final triumph over Canada.
At the event, he made 20 of 42 (47.6%) of his shots from long range.
Brown is now locked in with Louisville. He is averaging 17.3 points and 5.1 assists per game. Dybantsa, meanwhile, is averaging 24.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for BYU.
Brown's 45 meant he broke the ACC record for a freshman that had been set just last year by 2022 FIBA U17 World Cup winner Cooper Flagg, when he played for Duke.
Flagg, the top pick in last year's NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks, had 42 points in a win over Notre Dame.
The late Unseld also scored 45 points in a game against Georgetown in 1967, but Louisville were not in the ACC at the time.
Brown didn't know about Unseld's mark until someone told him during the game.
"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,'" said Brown, a potential NBA lottery pick in 2026.
FIBA