Wednesday morning, when a Minnesota team that has struggled to systematically put away lesser opponents woke up, the players were greeted with highlights of a second consecutive upset over Michigan -- a squad ranked at No. 24 in the preseason AP poll.

By the time the Gophers had finished dismantling Southern, 85-57, there was another reminder: Nebraska -- a team ranked 21st before the start of the season -- had just fallen to a team called Incarnate Word.

"They see the scores," coach Richard Pitino said. "It can happen to anybody. This time of year is very difficult with finals and non-big name teams ... So all they need to do is see it, and certainly they understand it."

Before the Wolverines dropped games against NJIT and Eastern Michigan, Purdue fell to North Florida. Indiana also lost at home in a guarantee game vs. Eastern Washington. Then Nebraska added its name among the giants to fall on Wednesday.

After sleep-walking through one half or another in five consecutive games, Minnesota has perked up in its last two, albeit against highly inferior competition.

On Wednesday, after falling behind 6-3, the Gophers ignited a 12-0 run and were never threatened again. The team's high-rolling offense was on display again, with Andre Hollins lighting up the perimeter and ultimately scoring 24 points.

How does he get motivated against a team ranked 323 in the kenpom.com rankings?

"It's actually easier now with the current events that have been going on," Hollins said. "Nebraska just lost to some team. Michigan has lost too -- I saw them lose against Eastern Michigan. Teams have been dropping and letting their guard down this time of year. I just came out and set the tone that we're not going to have that here. We're trying to do something bigger here ... looking at the bigger picture, we have Big Ten coming up and we're trying to be the best that I can be."

Dunkerific

Today, Hollins turns 22. Last night, the senior guard was reminiscing about Monday's game, and the bit of athletic display at the end that brought him back to high school.

Hollins had the first two-dunk game of his career (he had one all of last year) in the blowout win vs. North Dakota.

"I told [freshman] Nate [Mason] I was going to dunk that game," the 6-foot-1 Hollins said with a grin. "I just felt like I wanted to be a man of my word. I'm going to get more dunks than [center] Mo [Walker] this year."

Walker, standing at his locker nearby, retorted: "You're not going to have more dunks than me."

Andre replied: "Yes I definitely am. We'll see. They were weak dunks but you have to give me credit."

Not quite the same as his best high school feat, though.

"I had six dunks one game in high school," he said. "I swear. I know that's not going to happen here unless the team dies on the court."

Downtime to study and get over The Death Cough

Pitino noted that with the long layoff -- eight games -- between games, players will take a couple of days off, spend a lot of time on academics -- final exams begin today. Otherwise, the Gophers will turn their focus to a lot of individual work without any game to prepare for for a while.

The players aren't the only ones excited for a bit of a layoff. Pitino sounded like death in last night's postgame conference.

"I feel awful," he said. "I've had this cough for like two weeks and it will not go away. It is driving me insane and it's driving my wife insane. Like, she's going to divorce me soon if this thing doesn't go away. So hopefully a little time off will help, who knows."