Former Gophers wing Austin Hollins signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Premier Basketball League on June 27. The contract is for two years.

“We are very happy to add Austin Hollins to the squad”, said coach Oded Kattash in a statement. “This is a guard with a good character, a good friend of the players next to him in the locker room, an excellent guard and a player who can play in several positions. He can provide us solutions for a variety of situations and line-ups on the court.”

Hollins was born in Chandler, Arizona and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2014 and was a major contributor for four seasons.

During his senior year, he was second on the team in points per game (12.4) and rebounds per game (5.0), while also averaging two steals per game.

He was named the MVP of the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in the same season, a tournament of the best teams not invited to the NCAA Tournament. He scored 19 points and hit the go-ahead basket with under a minute remaining in the championship game against SMU.

Despite not being selected in the 2014 NBA Draft, Hollins has carved out an impressive overseas career. He started his professional career playing with Denain Voltaire, a second-tier French team, from 2014 to 2016.

He then signed with Kauhajoki Karhu of the Finnish League for the 2016-17 season, where he scored a career high 17.9 points per game.

Following the 2016-17 season, he spent two seasons in the German League; he was even named the Dunking Champion of the league All-Star Game in 2019.

Hollins most recently played in the Serbian League with Crvena zvezda for the 2021-22 season. Zvezda had great success in their sole season with Hollins, winning the ABA League, Serbian League and the Serbian Cup.

He will now join Maccabi Tel Aviv, which is widely regarded as the premier basketball team in Israel and one of the best in the EuroLeague.