Blake Hoffarber remembers the 50-plus phone calls, the 60-plus text messages, the longtime friend who literally left a 10-minute message screaming as he ran out of the Target Center in Minneapolis.

He was in high school then, when Hoffarber made the shot everyone remembers.

The shot, as it is known in Hoffarber’s life, follows him everywhere. Almost six years have passed since the Minnesota state high school basketball tournament, when Hoffarber found himself on his butt in the final seconds.

What happened next altered his life.

He’s always been a good basketball player, but with Hopkins High School needing a miracle, Hoffarber made an 18-footer while he was sitting down at the buzzer to send the game into double overtime.

His team, Hopkins, won the game. Hoffarber, it could be said, won much more.

The shot — and Hoffarber — won an ESPY for the play, the first high school athlete ever to pick up that award. He ended up on "Today."

“I hear about it still every day,” Hoffarber said. “Whether it is the one from high school or the one my freshman year, I hear about it at least once a day.

“It’s a conversation starter for people and it seems like a good time for them to talk about it and it’s always fun to talk with people about it. They always say ‘Oh, I was here when this happened.’”

Al Nolen, a Minneapolis native who was his AAU teammate in high school and current Minnesota senior point guard, remembers where he was.

Nolen hadn’t met Hoffarber yet — that would come weeks later when the two started playing on the same AAU team — but Nolen was sitting in his house watching the state playoffs on TV.

He saw the ball go up and in, not really sure what happened. Then he saw a guy on the ground. And he was shocked.

“I didn’t know what happened,” Nolen said. “I just saw the ball go up in the air and go in the net. I thought the game had been over but then they showed the replay and you can see a little buy on his back shooting the ball.

“It was kind of breathtaking.”

It was the first time. It wouldn’t be the only time.

Hoffarber ended up going to in-state University of Minnesota, the place he always used to watch games as a kid and dream about playing for.

His freshman year, in the Big Ten quarterfinals, the kid who made the shot in high school did it again in college, making a twisting jumper to beat Indiana.

It was the shot done over so far as dramatics go, although it didn’t get as much attention as the high school version.

For a long time, Hoffarber was just known as that — the guy who hits the miracle shots. Not a bad thing, but Hoffarber wanted more.

“I used to get sick of it when people thought I was only this kid who made these weird shots,” Hoffarber said. “They didn’t realize I was actually kind of good at basketball, too.

“But when people, they think it was a fun time and it tends to make me think, ‘Oh, they enjoy talking about it’ so I should as well.”

Now a senior at No. 15 Minnesota (14-4, 3-3 Big Ten), which plays Michigan (11-8, 1-5) tonight in Ann Arbor (7 p.m., Big Ten Network), he has worked on his game. Basketball is more than just crazy shots now. It is a chance at a lifestyle, a dream.

This is what Hoffarber has always wanted. He wanted to be more than the shot, more than a 3-point shooter.

Already known as one of the best shooters in the Big Ten, Hoffarber worked this summer to add a pull-up jumper, to work on driving to the basket and on his passing and defense.

It paid off, as he leads Minnesota in scoring (13.8 ppg.) and assists (4.3 apg.) while still making 39.7 percent of his 3-pointers.

“He really gets it off quickly,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “He gets his feet and his hands set quicker than anyone I’ve seen. To find the seams and get into your step, it’s really harder than people think, and he does it beautifully and very quickly.

“Now, he’s showing the ability to get his shot off one-on-one, not just in space. And he makes them.”

He did this as much for himself as anyone else. In past years, teams could figure him out quickly. They’d smother him at the 3-point line, get in his face and do anything they could to disrupt his main talent — shooting.

He needed to change something, wanted more from basketball than to be just the guy who hit the shot, who made shots.

“You’d like to be known as a basketball player,” Hoffarber said.” Not just a shooter or a rebounder. You want to feel like you can be known as more than one thing in a game.”

Now, as professional basketball awaits in a few months, he is. But in the end for him, it still comes back to one thing — the shot.

“It’s kind of weird that people tend to remember that shot,” Hoffarber said. “It’s not a bad thing when people bring that up.

“But I think now, people are starting to realize I’m more than just that guy who hit that crazy shot.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein