In Ann Arbor on Feb. 16, it took Michigan barely more than five minutes to open a 14-2 lead over the Maryland men’s basketball team.

After 5:02 on Wednesday, Penn State led the visiting Terps, 14-3.

Maryland has battled slow starts throughout the year, but after the lopsided loss to the Nittany Lions, coach Mark Turgeon has put an emphasis on getting to the bottom of the early struggles. He hopes the problem will be rectified before Sunday’s rematch with the No. 9 Wolverines, though Turgeon believes returning to Xfinity Center against a top-10 opponent may provide a boost.

“We talk about it. We’ve worked on it [in the past],” Turgeon said. “[But] we’ve really talked about it the past two days.”

[Read more: Maryland basketball’s Jalen Smith couldn’t contain Lamar Stevens during their rematch]

The loss to Michigan included the Wolverines scoring 10 fastbreak points in the first half, which guard Anthony Cowan attributed to the Terps not sprinting back on defense. But that loss didn’t seem to have carried the weight that being embarrassed by the 13th-place Nittany Lions does.

“I view it more as a positive rather than a negative,” guard Darryl Morsell said. “It was kind of humbling, so I feel like we’re hungry and we’ll be ready to play [Michigan].”

[Read more: Sloppy rebounding helped sink Maryland men’s basketball against Penn State]

Other than having more energy, Turgeon said improving the execution of early plays would make a difference for his team.

After sluggish starts, missed open shots in the early minutes will stick in the eighth-year head coach’s mind as being particularly damaging.

“The key is that we make a shot, make a layup, get fouled,” Turgeon said. “Do something to get us going and not turn the ball over. That would really help us.”

One way the Terps may be able to get an offensive spark early in games would be a lineup change. Guard Aaron Wiggins shined against both the Wolverines (team-high 15 points) and the Nittany Lions (11 points) as the first man off the bench.

Turgeon said making Wiggins a starter is an option, but didn’t give the impression a change is imminent. Wiggins’ only two starts this season came in the first two games, and Turgeon has said the freshman is more comfortable coming off the bench, though Wiggins said he doesn’t have a preference.

“That’s not anything that crosses my mind,” Wiggins said. “Regardless of where I’m at, I’m going to be comfortable doing whatever I have to do to help my team win.”

Turgeon also pointed out that Wiggins has been playing “starter minutes” and often enters the game after just a few minutes.

Sometimes, though, that means entering facing a deficit that is already nearing double-digits.

“You’ve got to think we’re not losing the game in the first two minutes,” Turgeon said, before remembering the Penn State loss. “Even though we did, we didn’t. We could’ve come back if we solidified ourselves after that.”

Turgeon doesn’t expect to have a similar problems Sunday, however. With an undefeated conference home record and plenty to play for in the fight for a double bye, the team believes it won’t repeat the mistakes that led to the early holes they’ve buried themselves under too often this season.

“If we can’t get fired up to come back home, play our last home games and then take part in some postseason tournaments,” Turgeon said, “something’s wrong.”