The Terps have gotten off to a rough start in league play, opening 0-3 for the first time since joining the Big Ten. A big reason for that is the fact the Terps have already had to play back-to-back road games at Iowa and Illinois. The Hawkeyes have the nation’s top scorer in Keegan Murray and the Illini have big man Kofi Cockburn, who is currently the nation’s No. 5 scorer.

And while the Terps will return to the friendly confines of Xfinity Center for the first time since the calendar turned to the new year Sunday, the competition doesn’t get any easier. After facing two of the nation’s top five scorers the past two games, the Terps will face a third Sunday in Wisconsin guard Johnny Davis, who enters the Badger’s matchup with the Terps as the nation’s No. 4 scorer, averaging 22.6 points per game.

“You know, Murray played outstanding against us, Kofi was really good,” said Maryland interim head coach Danny Manning. “You know, we've got to try to slow down Davis, who's an elite scorer, it's gonna be a great challenge. We’ve got to make sure that he shoots a bad percentage. That’s the thing about guys that score the basketball, they're going to get the opportunity to score. You just got to be kind of disruptive enough where they don't hit their rhythm full stride and they're a little bit uncomfortable and their numbers aren't above average. You just want to try to keep them average to below average if you can in a perfect world, but Davis is a terrific scorer and [Brad] Davison, you know, he doesn't get the recognition across the country, but he’s one of the better two guys in the country as well.”

In recent years, the Terps would have relied on defensive stopper Darryl Morsell to slow down the opponent's top offensive threat. But Morsell is now at Marquette and the Terps will likely have to take a different approach to slowing down Davis, who scored a career-high 37 points while adding 14 rebounds in the Badgers’ previous road contest, a 74-69 win over Purdue last Monday.

“There'll be a lot of guys who get a chance at him,” said Manning. “You know, he's a great basketball player and we'll try to keep fresh bodies on him. We'll try to throw different guys on him, we'll put some guys his size on him. We'll put some smaller guys on him. We might put a taller guy on him. It just depends on the matchup and who we have out there on the court at that particular time when he's out there.”

Manning conceded that the Terps aren’t likely to keep Davis from putting up big numbers. He enters Sunday’s game having scored 20 or more points in six straight games. The key, according to Manning, is to make sure every shot is contested and to make things as difficult as possible for him.

“You want him to shoot contested shots.” Manning said. “You're not gonna stop him from scoring. He's gonna score the basketball, he's gonna shoot the basketball. He's a great player. He’s second in the country for a reason and scoring the basketball. You just want to be there to contest, you want to make his catches challenged, no easy catches, and you don't want to do anything to let him get himself going. You don't want to fall asleep and give up a back door. You don't want to commit an unnecessary foul on a jump shot where he can go to the free throw line and see the ball go through the hoop. The biggest thing, like I said, is just try to be there, have a hand in his face and make him work.”

Besides slowing down Davis, the Terps will also be looking to get off to a better start at home after really struggling in the early goings the previous two contests on the road at Iowa and Illinois. Saturday’s practice was hopefully an indication of a better start Sunday according to Manning.

“Iowa, we probably put ourselves in too big of a hole at the start of the game, but we showed some grit, we showed some determination and doing things to put ourselves in a situation to have success,” said Manning. “We just got to do it from tip to horn. We got to start out at the tip, and we got to play all the way through the horn, and I think that mentality that we practiced with today will carry over in the game. It was a good practice, we had a lot of energy, it was spirited. It was a fun day and we just got to step out on that court and enjoy playing on our home court. We got to protect our home court and we definitely need all the Maryland Terps to come and give us some noise and support and bring some energy for us because we faced that the last two times on the road and I feel like that helped those teams as well.”

The Terps and Badgers are set to tip-off at 7:30 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.