Nate Mason will remain the starting point guard for the slumping Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball team when it hosts Rutgers at Williams Arena on Saturday.

Mason, a true freshman, made his first career start in Minnesota's last-second loss to Iowa earlier this week.

With Mason in the lineup, former starting point guard DeAndre Mathieu, Pitino says, won't see a significant decrease in minutes.

The Gophers have lost five straight games to start the Big Ten portion of the schedule. The team has never made the NCAA Tournament after an 0-5 start to conference play.

More to come on this shortly.