When Minnesota took the court vs. Furman on Monday night, the Gophers were ranked No. 1 in the nation in assists per game. They were ranked second nationally in steals. They were third in turnover margin. The last three games? They had them by an average of 33 points.

So you can imagine the players' confusion when coach Richard Pitino was getting after them -- hard -- just one day earlier in practice.

"They were looking at me funny," the coach said. "Like 'Why is this guy on us?'"

Now, he says, they know.

After narrowly avoiding the fate that so many Big Ten teams have encountered this fall, the Gophers kept themselves off the list of conference teams downed at home in a guarantee game but received a lesson in that such lofty statistics don't translate to every game. When they don't, teams have to gut it out.

"I don't know that I'm happy but it was good that we experienced it," said an upbeat Pitino after the 86-76 win that felt much closer than that.

"We are so good statistically right now and I don't think that's necessarily a good thing for our team ... I thought those last couple games, we were playing for assists. And we were playing for steals. I said guys, I like the fact that you're doing those things but you've got to play the game."

Pitino had similar words for his point guard. In the last 10 conference games, DeAndre Mathieu had amassed a stellar 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which led the Big Ten. In the meantime, he stopped searching for his shot as much and started actually hunting assists, the coach thought, prompting him to call him Rajon Rondo after the Dallas Mavericks' point guard.

"I don't understand your message," Mathieu told Pitino in response to his coach asking him to please play the game.

Pitino's response was clear on Monday.

"If you don't play what's given to you there may be days where you don't get 9, 10 assists and you've got to go get 20 points," Pitino said.

In the first half, nothing was coming easily for Mathieu, who went 2-for-7 from the field with four assists but also four turnovers. In the second, the floor general calmed down, finishing with 16 points and gathering three more assists and just one more turnover and a pair of big shots down the stretch to help seal the victory.

"I think he now realizes that," Pitino said of Mathieu. "The second half he did that."

In the locker room Mathieu shook his head. He knew how close the Gophers were to losing a game that they couldn't. The turnover ratio wasn't pretty in this one -- Minnesota had just 17 assists, its fewest in six games while amassing 14 turnovers. They had just one more steal than miscue. But the Gophers found a way to play what they were given at the end, and get it done.

"We definitely needed this to kind of bring us back down," Mathieu said. "Let us know that we can still be beat any day. I think that was perfect timing."