COLLEGE PARK, Md. — As its road woes in Big Ten play continue, No. 17 Maryland (13-4, 3-3 Big Ten) is set to play a much-needed home game Jan. 18 when the Terps welcome Purdue 10-7, 3-3) to College Park. But head coach Mark Turgeon is imploring his team to not focus on the past and be ready to have a bounce back performance at Xfinity Center on Saturday.

“We’ve got to bounce back,” Turgeon said Friday. “We’ve got to be resilient. It’s hard. It’s hard to win, especially on the road. But we have to be resilient. We’ve got an opportunity at home. We’ve practiced well. And we have to move on.

“We know how good Purdue is, how well they’re playing. It will be a tough game. Every game in our league is going to be tough. But we’re not feeling sorry for ourselves. It’s not a lingering effect. We think we’re starting to play a lot better basketball, so we’re looking forward to [Saturday]. They’re really good defensively, really well-coached defensively. They’ll have a gameplan and they haven’t played since Sunday so they’ll be locked into their gameplan against us.”

Purdue is, in fact, beginning to play much better than it did early on in the season. Despite the Boilermakers recently losing back-to-back road games themselves, they answered back in a big way Sunday with a 29-point win over No. 15 Michigan State at home.

But even having lost four of their last seven games, Turgeon believes the Terps are also showing signs of improvement, as well.

“We’re fighters,” Turgeon said. “We’d rather be 6-0 than 3-3, but we are where we are. But we feel like three out of our last four games we’ve played at a pretty high level and we continue to get better in practice.”

Starting to feel better about the way they’re playing isn’t the only similarity the Terps and Boilermakers have between them. Like Maryland, Purdue has won this season mostly with its defense in spite of inconsistent offense and poor shooting.

On paper, both teams appear to have the same strengths and weaknesses. Each excel on the defensive end of the floor — Maryland ranks sixth in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom, Purdue seventh — and are two of the better rebounding teams in the conference. Each have had their shooting woes, but both are excellent and holding opposing teams to low shooting percentages.

Besides some differences offensively in the low post, the Terps likely feel like they’re looking in the mirror when scouting the Boilermakers.

“When I looked at their stats, I just looked at my assistants and said, ‘They’re us.’ I mean, they’re totally us,” Turgeon said. “But the difference is they have a low-post game and we don’t really have much of a low-post game. Now, [Jalen ‘Stix’ Smith] was much better last game, scored a couple around the basket, we offensive rebounded better. We’re still playing inside-out, but in a different way that they play inside-out. So yeah, the stats look eerily similar. Both good defensive teams, good rebounding teams, tough teams. It’s just offensively they play a little bit differently than we do.”

Purdue’s strong frontcourt is manned by 7-foot-3 junior center Matt Haarms and 6-foot-9, 270-pound sophomore Trevion Williams, who collectively average 21.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks per game.

Turgeon said a player like sophomore forward Jalen ‘Stix’ Smith will benefit from having played against Purdue’s bigs before, but the same can’t be said for 7-foot-2 freshman center Chol Marial, who will be seeing the Boilermakers for the first time.

He knows his bigs will have their hands full on Saturday with arguably Purdue’s two most impactful players and, as a result, the Terps have given plenty of attention to Haarms and Williams in their preparation for this matchup.

“Haarms is having a terrific year. Their two centers are over 20 points a game and almost 20 rebounds combined. Between them, they’re playing terrific together,” Turgeon said. “[Williams] is such a load down there. They run a lot of good stuff for him. He gets good post-up position. He’s not a terrific athlete, but he’s a really good athlete and he’s really skilled and really smart and he knows how to score. His game has expanded. Last year was more a 2- or 3-foot jump hook, now, he can score 8-10 feet from the basket. He’s just more experienced and he’s gaining confidence. He makes it tough because they do have shooters around him too. A lot of the things we worked on [Friday] was figuring out how we’re going to guard him and how we’re going to help and get back to shooters. He makes them go, I think, offensively.”

Having played against Haarms and Williams before, Smith is hoping to take what he knows about their games plus what he has seen from them this year on film and apply it to his defensive efforts Saturday.

Knowing his running mate in Maryland’s frontcourt doesn’t have the same experience, Smith is also trying to get Marial as prepared as he can for what is sure to be one of the toughest opposing low-post duos in the Big Ten.

“I know both of them can step out and shoot a little bit, so I have to be prepared for that and just make sure I limit their touches in the post,” Smith said. “I’ve been helping [Marial] just talking to him about positioning and ways to move your feet and just how to stay down on shot fakes and making sure you’re contesting everything that goes up.”

Both Turgeon and Terps players spoke about Purdue’s diverse offense at Friday’s practice and know the Boilermakers will show a lot of different looks on Saturday. Even without its leading scorer from last year — Carsen Edwards — Purdue’s offense is one that has Maryland’s attention.

“Carsen Edwards was a different dude and it’s hard to gameplan for anybody like that, but they’re a really good team,” Terps’ sophomore wing Aaron Wiggins said. “They just blew Michigan State out at home. So they’re a really good team and we have to come to play. They have a lot of plays that they run, so we have to be prepared and know what they’re throwing at us.”

Wiggins is coming off of a game in which he came off the bench but broke out of a shooting slump by hitting 3-of-6 threes and scoring 13 points for the Terps. Turgeon said Friday that Wiggins will come off the bench again on Saturday.

In terms of its own offense, Maryland is hoping it can limit costly turnovers that have come back to bite the Terps in recent games and play a much more sound game offensively in front of its home crowd.

“We haven’t taken care of the ball the last two games,” Turgeon said. “We’re going to try to do better tomorrow.”

Maryland and Purdue are scheduled to tip-off in College Park at 2 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on the Maryland Sports Radio Network and televised on ESPN2.