With Wednesday night's 63-58 loss at Penn State, senior point guard DeAndre Mathieu's shooting woes extended to 2-for-18 from the field (11.1 percent) in the past three games.

The 5-9 Mathieu went 1-for-7 from the field against the Nittany Lions and missed three layups, two of which were blocked. As the conference season grows longer, his size has been exposed more and more.

Fellow senior guard Andre Hollins said of Mathieu: "He's just got to stay aggressive. If he could get back to what he was doing at the beginning of the season, getting in the lane, penetrating, being strong with the ball, getting those easy layups, hitting that pullup jumper he likes. He's just got to get his rhythm back."

In the meantime, is Pitino tempted to switch back to Nate Mason to start games? Not especially, because the freshman has gone 7-for-30 (23.3 percent) in his past four games after being consistent for most of the year.

"Nate is in a bit of a slump, too, now," Pitino said. "So it's just where we're at right now. I didn't look at it like that when I made that change. I just kind of did it because I liked the rotation little bit better."

Gold in the Barn: startribune.com/gophers