Two weeks ago, Andre Hollins sat behind the bench with his former Gophers basketball teammates and friends watching the program's biggest victory in nearly a decade unfold in the blowout over then-No. 3 Ohio State at the Barn.
Hollins, who starred for Minnesota from 2011-15, has the best single-game performance for the Gophers in the last four decades, but he was also in attendance for sophomore Marcus Carr's memorable 35-point effort against the Buckeyes.
It was most points by a U player since Hollins exploded for 41 points in a win against his hometown program, Memphis, in the Battle for Atlantis in the Bahamas his sophomore year in 2012.
"He's the catalyst of the team," Hollins said of Carr. "Everything goes through him. He runs it. They're not very deep with experience. They're really young, but they can, like Marcus says, compete with anyone in the country. They showed it."
A big reason Hollins was in town goes back seven years ago the same season he became the first Gopher to score 40 points in a game since the 1970s.
In 2012, Hollins signed up to be a blood donor for Be the Match, the global leader in bone marrow transplants. It was during an event called "Hope Day" for Gophers athletes on campus.
The organization didn't find a genetic match for Hollins until this summer. The 27-year-old Memphis native returned to Minneapolis this month for them to retrieve his stem cell donation a couple days after the Gophers defeated Ohio State on Dec. 15.
Hollins looked forward to the patient being strong enough physically to receive the marrow, which can help to battle blood cancers such as leukemia and sickle cell.
