Maryland men’s basketball bounced back from a rough start. Now comes the real test.

The last time Maryland men’s basketball ventured away from the friendly confines of the Xfinity Center, it suffered three consecutive losses that had many people ready to pound the panic button just four games into the season.

Maryland was picked to finish third in the Big Ten preseason media poll. But it got off to a 1-3 start – its worst since the 2000-01 season. That team went on to reach the Final Four and delivered the program’s first national championship a year later with many of the same players.

Nearly two weeks removed from being demolished at Villanova, the Terps seem to have found their footing after returning to College Park. Maryland scored just 40 points against the Wildcats. It scored 103 in Tuesday night’s win over Rider, capping off a perfect three-game homestand.

“I kind of knew this is how the season was going to go down,” Kevin Willard said of his team’s early struggles. “I feel good. I don’t think we’re there yet. I think we still have a lot more work to do. But they’re trending in the right direction.”

Much of Maryland’s early struggles can be attributed to the “ceiling on the rim” to use Jahmir Young’s words. Despite shooting a season best 40 percent (8-of-20) from beyond the arc on Tuesday, the Terps rank 345th out of 351 Division I teams with a 23.8 percent team 3-point percentage, according to the NCAA website.

That mark is the lowest among power conference schools. The second lowest? Indiana (6-1), who Maryland (4-3) visits on Friday for its first Big Ten game of the season. 

The Hoosiers’ lone loss was at the hands of defending national champion UConn in the Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden.

Despite its strong record, Indiana sits 75th in KenPom, 17 spots behind Maryland at 58. The Hoosiers have just one win by double-digits, and it came in their most recent game in a 13-point victory over Harvard. That number represents the Terps’ smallest margin of victory this season.

Friday’s trip to Bloomington will be a homecoming for Jordan Geronimo, who spent three seasons with the Hoosiers before transferring to Maryland. The redshirt junior has settled into a larger role with the Terps and is averaging 14.5 points across the last two contests.

“[Geronimo] is exactly what I thought he would be for us,” Willard said. “He’s doing some really good things on the defensive end … he’s protected a lot of guys and we’re able to switch with him.”

Willard tinkered with the starting lineup through the first few games, but he seems to have found his group — Geronimo started all three games on the homestand.

Indiana coach Mike Woodson employs a similarly big starting lineup, with leading scorers Kel’el Ware (7 feet) and Malik Reneau (6-foot-9) joined by five-star freshman Mackenzie Mgabko (6-foot-8) in the frontcourt.

Julian Reese will have his hands full with Indiana’s big men. The junior forward is coming off his best performance of the season in which he notched 22 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks. Most notably, he shattered his career highs in free throw makes (14) and attempts (17). Both Reese and Willard have harped on the work he put in at the free-throw line after shooting just 53.3 percent there last year.

Reese is Maryland’s second-leading scorer, and its leading rebounder and shot-blocker. As he becomes a focal point on both ends of the floor, opposing teams are planning their gameplan around the big man. 

“Davidson earlier in the season, they played me in a different way and I had to adjust,” Reese said. “I was kind of struggling a little bit against UAB because they had that 1-3-1 defense.”

The adjustments were apparent on Tuesday. When Rider went to a zone early in the game, Reese caught the ball from the high post and delivered a bounce pass to a cutting Geronimo for an easy dunk. When he was defended man-to-man, he’d overpower his defender and often earn a trip to the line.

Maryland will likely need more of the same from Reese to win in what should be a raucous environment in Assembly Hall, a building it holds a 1-5 record in since joining the Big Ten. The Terps have done nothing to quiet the preseason concerns about their play on the road — they were 1-9 on the road in conference play last season, and are 0-3 outside of the Xfinity Center this season.

Willard’s squad needed to reset after a nightmarish start to the season. They did that over the 10 days they spent in College Park. Whether their improvements will hold up against stiffer competition is another question.

Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. on Friday.