A strange thing happened on Tuesday, with about 7 minutes to play in the first half of an eventual 95-89 Gophers victory over Iowa.

The basket started growing.

It got larger and larger with every second and soon, it was like tossing pennies through a hula hoop.

At least that's what it looked like to Austin Hollins, who broke out of his shooting slump in memorable fashion, finishing with a career-high 27 points and adding four assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Afterward, Gophers coach Richard Pitino had some touching words for Hollins in the locker room in a video released by the school:

"Austin's not playing well and everybody's doubting him," the coach said. "And the one thing you can all learn from him, top to bottom on this team — the most impressive thing about him is he's the first one in the huddle to cheer everybody up. He's the first one in practice to talk, to lift everybody up.

"There's a reason why he's successful, he gets out of that and he doesn't feel sorry for himself. That was a big-time performance, man. That was big time. I'm so happy for you."

Gold in the Barn: startribune.com/gophers