MINNEAPOLIS - In need of an emotional boost for two of the Gophers' captains, men's basketball coach Richard Pitino enlisted the help of the team's third captain.
After an overtime loss to Wisconsin on Saturday, the Gophers' third setback in a row, Pitino asked Akeem Springs to spend time this week with junior guard Nate Mason and sophomore forward Jordan Murphy. The goal: get them reinvigorated before Wednesday's game at Ohio State.
While Mason and Murphy entered this season with high expectations and were big parts of the Gophers' 15-2 start, they have been mired in slumps since the team's last victory - 78-68 over Ohio State at Williams Arena on Jan. 8.
"They work. If you talk to Coach (Pitino), they're playing hard," Springs said. "That's where you would be disappointed, if they weren't playing hard. But as long as they're getting shots up, as long as they're doing that, I think they'll be fine."
Against the Badgers on Saturday, Mason shot 3 of 14 from the floor and finished with eight points. In his past four games, he is shooting 26 percent from the field and averaging 10.3 points.
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Murphy was benched down the stretch and finished with four points, his second-worst output this season.
After averaging 11.6 points and 8.0 rebounds as a freshman, Murphy is putting up 9.8 points and 7.7 rebounds, but only 6.3 points over his past four games.
"He's not a great shooter and he's not a great scorer, so he needs to get over that," Pitino said. "We talked about that, (that) it doesn't mean you're not a good player. He'll get to that point. But I don't see that as his game. And he can still be darn good without doing those things."
Mason's slump might be the bigger concern for the Gophers. He leads the team in scoring with a 13.7-point average but hasn't scored more than 14 points in the past five games.
Pitino downplayed Mason's struggles, pointing to his 10 assists against Wisconsin.
"I thought he played well last game," the coach said. "I didn't think he played well at all versus Penn State, and you could tell. Last game he shot 3 for 14, but he could've shot 6 of 14 and had a darn good game with 10 assists. I thought he was confident and playing well. It's just one of those things where you need to see the ball go in a couple times and rep it out in practice as much as you can.
"I don't really worry about him too much. He's not a Steph Curry type shooter. That's not really his game. He'll get going a little bit better, but he is playing well."
The Gophers' strong start to the season was due in large part to Mason. In the team's biggest win of the season, a road upset of No. 20 Purdue on Jan. 1, Mason scored 31 points to go with 11 assists and six rebounds.
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"He's a tough kid," said backup point guard Dupree McBrayer. "He's in the gym working all the time. He's going to get out of the slump. I think he's going to have a big breakout game soon, and then he'll be back on track after that."
