Parker Fox didn't return for an eighth year of college basketball to be on the receiving end of a scathing locker room exchange from Gophers coach Ben Johnson.

But there he was with fellow returning seniors Dawson Garcia and Mike Mitchell Jr., among the players singled out for lacking leadership following an 82-67 loss at Indiana on Dec. 9.

"That locker room was an experience for sure," Fox said. "It gets to kind of almost like a boiling point and something needs to be fixed."

Fox took it personally that he could do more to help the Gophers (6-5), who have lost four of the past five games heading into Saturday's game against Fairleigh Dickinson at Williams Arena.

"My leadership is oftentimes vocal, but more importantly it has to be lead by example," Fox said. "These last 10 days have been tough, but we've been learning a lot about how hard it is to win."

The Gophers have nine scholarship seniors, including six newcomers. Johnson expected them to help set the standard for competing consistently. It shows up in practice but not enough in games.

"I think we play hard in glimpses, but we don't play hard long enough," Johnson said. "We pointed it out over and over that when we do play hard, and we stick to our scheme on offense and defense, good things happen. When we don't, there's a big gap between our success and failure."

Garcia, averaging a career-high 19.3 points and 7.1 rebounds, said he learned from the 40 minutes Johnson addressed the team after that Indiana loss.

"[Johnson] spoke to we don't have a true leader on our team," Garcia said. "What I noticed from a personal thing is leading by example is just not good enough. I've always said I try to continue to get outside of my comfort zone. I'm not good enough vocally. I got to do everything better. Guys on the court have to do everything better if we want to have a chance."

At Indiana, Mitchell said players have to hold each other more accountable and "get on each other a lot more" moving forward.

The U's backcourt rotation consists of seniors Mitchell, Lu'Cye Patterson, Femi Odukale and Brennan Rigsby, but freshman Isaac Asuma surprisingly has emerged as a leader in recent practices.

"Over these last 10 days, I've improved a lot," Asuma said. "Our team chemistry has gone up."

The Gophers have been healthy enough to scrimmage with three teams in the past 10 days. Asuma took charge of the Gold squad, which impressed his older teammates. That might be something that carries over to a more consistent team effort Saturday.

"I think having a sense of urgency helps me get better and prepare for next season as well," Asuma said. "I'm 100 percent focused on this year and getting wins to send the seniors out the right way."

Injury update

Gophers senior guard Tyler Cochran, who has missed the first 11 games of the season, has been doing noncontact drills recently for the first time since having foot surgery in October.

Johnson said Cochran's timeline to play is uncertain, but the Gophers are encouraged to see his progress. The 6-3, 225-pound Toledo transfer was the Mid-American Conference co-defensive player of the year last season.

"He's doing some light stuff, but he hasn't done anything contact, 5-on-5," Johnson said. "He's doing individual workouts. Obviously, he'll continue to do rehab, so we'll see."