AUSTIN, Texas — If Tubby Smith was going to go down in the NCAA tournament, he was going to do it his way.

On this night, his way worked.

The seat under the Gophers’ basketball coach grew considerably cooler after 11th seed Minnesota hammered sixth seed UCLA 83-63 in a second round game Friday, March 22, at the Frank Erwin Center.

Sophomore point guard Andre Hollins scored a game-high 28 points for the Gophers, who advanced to face third seed Florida (27-7) on Sunday.

“Growing up as a little kid, you dream of these moments,” Hollins said. “We had to raise our intensity at this part of the year, and I think that’s what we did tonight.”

Hollins, who had 41 points earlier this season, officially scored the most points Friday by a Gophers player in the NCAA tournament since Willie Burton scored 36 points against Northern Iowa in the second round in 1990. In a vacated game, Bobby Jackson had 36 points and Sam Jacobson had 29 points against Clemson in the Sweet 16 in 1997.

Smith, who for weeks has answered questions about his erratic substitution patterns, used 11 players in the first seven minutes. The platoon system that made fans furious all season actually helped Smith’s team take control; the starters stayed fresh and wore down the Bruins’ seven-man rotation on the way to a 35-25 halftime lead.

At one point, Minnesota had four bench players in the game with Hollins. It didn’t generate much offense (the Gophers opened the game shooting 3 for 12) but the defense was there (UCLA opened 2 for 12).

The Gophers’ starters didn’t play long enough to get into a rhythm early but Smith proved his point with the mass substitutions. Once he finally left Andre Hollins, Austin Hollins and Trevor Mbakwe on the court, they took over.

The trio scored 15 points during a 19-4 run that turned a one-point deficit into a 14-point lead with 4:27 left, a potent statement from the team’s best players.

The substituting was pretty normal for Smith, but the zone defense for most of the game was something different.

“We planned to zone them a lot,” Smith said. “But the zone was a byproduct of us pressing.”

It was Smith’s first NCAA tournament win in six seasons in Minnesota, which hadn’t officially won in the Big Dance since 1990 because victories in 1994 and 1997 were vacated after the academic scandal under Clem Haskins. The Gophers lost in the first round in 2009 and 2010.

Minnesota advanced to the championship game of the NIT last season, earning Smith a contract extension through the 2016-17 season. Beating Florida on Sunday would put the Gophers in the Sweet 16, and likely would silence Smith’s critics, at least for a while.

The pressure was on the Gophers entering the game because of speculation that Smith needed to win here to solidify his future with the program. UCLA (25-10) faced the same rumors about coach Ben Howland, even after winning the Pac-12 regular season title.

But Minnesota’s players were relaxed and played with more spark than they had in weeks. Maybe it was the new black-and-white warmups. Maybe it was the fact that they were excited to be playing in the program’s first NCAA tournament since 2010. Maybe it was because they remembered going on a run to the NIT this time last season.

Whatever the case, the Gophers played their most impressive game since they upset No. 1 Indiana at Williams Arena on Feb. 26.

But they had lost three straight games entering the NCAA tournament.

“We haven’t played well at all in a while,” Smith said. “So it was good to see our guys having fun, playing the right way, sharing the basketball (19 assists), taking care of the basketball (11 turnovers).”

A few hundred Gophers fans attended, cheering on the Gophers during player introductions. The team was able to forget about the sting of losing to Illinois in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament, committing 19 turnovers and giving up a buzzer-beating shot to Brandon Paul.

“I know sometimes we were frustrating to watch,” said Mbakwe, who had nine points and 12 rebounds. “But I think we knew we had another chance. Coach Smith is experienced. We kind of follow his lead. He’s been here so many times. He knows what it takes to win.”

Junior guard Austin Hollins picked up where he left off in an opening-round loss to Illinois in the Big Ten tournament. He had 11 of his 16 points, five assists and four steals in the first half. Andre Hollins struggled early, shooting 2 for 8 from the field, but he still had five points, four rebounds and zero turnovers in the first half.

Mbakwe didn’t attempt a field goal until midway through the first half but had nine points on 4-for-4 shooting from the field.

UCLA’s leading scorer, Shabazz Muhammad, who averaged 18 points a game this season, was held to five points without a field goal (0 for 7) in the first half.

Of course, there was a reason the Bruins were a consensus pick among college basketball experts to be upset. They were a different team, far less explosive, without second-leading scorer Jordan Adams, who suffered a broken foot in the Pac-12 tournament semifinals last week.

In the second half, the Bruins used a 10-2 run to cut it to 44-39 after a three-pointer from Norman Powell with 15:04 left. But Andre Hollins responded with back-to-back three-pointers to give Minnesota another double-digit lead. All the talk before the game was about how Mbakwe would be the difference maker. UCLA forgot about how good Smith’s second-year, All Big-Ten point guard had been earlier this season.

Sophomore Joe Coleman finished with all 14 of his points in the second half for the Gophers.

With the Hollinses and Coleman on the perimeter and Mbakwe inside, the Gophers have enough talent to keep moving on in the NCAA tournament, Mbakwe said.

“You see all the upsets happening,” he said. “We feel this year anybody can win a championship. Now we just have to go out there and play that way.”