A year ago, Nate Mason and Jordan Murphy were the two best players on a bad Gophers basketball team.

This season, Mason and Murphy are two captains on a much-improved team that can be competitive without them playing well. But the Gophers (15-5, 3-4 Big Ten) haven't been able to win lately with both of them struggling.

After three consecutive losses heading into Wednesday's game at Ohio State (12-8, 2-5), Minnesota coach Richard Pitino watched his team have its best practice in a long time Monday, especially Mason and Murphy.

" 'We kind of go where you take us,' " Pitino said he told Mason last week.

"I think everybody feeds off of him. When it comes to guards, we don't have a lot of old guys. Nate has been there before. He needs to be the most confident guy on the court."

After meeting with Pitino, Mason still shot 3-for-14 from the field in Saturday's 78-76 overtime loss against Wisconsin but did contribute 10 assists.

When the Gophers are going well, guard Nate Mason (2) and forward Jordan Murphy usually are part of it. When they’ve slumped of late, however, Minnesota has lost three consecutive games.

Mason is tied with Michigan State's Cassius Winston for the Big Ten lead in assists per game (5.6) and leads the Gophers in scoring (13.7 ppg). But the 6-2 junior point guard is shooting only 16-for-62 (25.8 percent) from the field in the five games since his career-high 31-point, 11-assist performance in the 91-82 overtime victory Jan. 1 at Purdue.

"I've done a horrible job of leading," Mason said before the Wisconsin game.

"That's on me. I have to get better at that. It gets me out of my comfort zone where I have to be more vocal than I normally am. The team needs me to do that and I'm willing to."

Murphy opened the Big Ten season with 12 points and a career-high 21 rebounds in a 75-74 overtime loss against Michigan State. But he hasn't scored in double figures in five consecutive games and is shooting 22-for-54 (40.7 percent) in Big Ten games. He leads the team with 16 turnovers in seven conference games.

"He's not a great shooter; he's not a great scorer," Pitino said. "He needs to get over that. We talked about that, 'That doesn't mean you're not a great player. You'll get to that point.' "

Pitino had a one-on-one talk Monday with Murphy about not being frustrated with his slowly developing post game. The 6-6, 240-pound San Antonio native was an All-Big Ten freshman last season because he was a tenacious offensive rebounder and strong finisher at the rim.

His skills were a work in progress, but he still dominated at times.

Murphy is trying to demonstrate an expanded offensive game, but he hasn't been effective putting the ball on the floor and shooting consistently from the outside (3-for-18 from three-point range).

"I don't see that as his game," Pitino said. "He can still be darn good without doing those things."

The Gophers were close to getting back on the winning path against Wisconsin on Saturday. Senior guard Akeem Springs, who hit a three-pointer to send the game into overtime, was a big reason, with 16 points in his first Big Ten start.

Springs, a graduate transfer from Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was named a captain with Mason and Murphy before the season.

His swagger and energy have been present all season, even in a nonstarting role. Pitino hopes Springs' confidence on the floor rubs off on Mason and Murphy.

"I talked to Akeem about, 'You got to get Murph and Nate to be confident again,' " Pitino said.

"And he was very, very good in practice [Monday]. Nate and Murph were really good. A lot of that had to do with Akeem's leadership."

No matter how much Springs is in their ears, Mason and Murphy know they need to be the leaders everyone expected them to be going into the season for the Gophers to be successful.

"Lot of energy comes from me, Nate and Akeem," Murphy said recently. "We just have to stay vocal and keep talking to guys and keeping them confident."