Sometime between Thursday and today, Cliff Tucker came down with a case of the flu, which forced him to miss the Terps’ 82-72 win over Florida State today.

Gary Williams said there were 200 reported cases of the flu on campus, up from 10 a year ago.

“I got that from the Surgeon General of the United States,” Dr. Williams said. This newspaper reported 400 cases of the flu four days ago.

Tucker and I have something in common, as the flu also kept me out of action a couple weeks ago. I had to get deputy sports editor Adi Joseph to fill in for me for a story. For the Terps, it was Jason McAlpin filling in for Tucker. His performance was similar to Joseph’s performance filling in for myself: good enough to keep things afloat.

McAlpin played seven minutes, his first action since Jan. 15 against Wake Forest, and his biggest contribution was on defense. He blocked two shots and didn’t look lost out there by any means.

“Jason got in there and played good defense for us. He blocked a couple of jump shots,” Williams said. “He was really good, and that’s what you need on your team.”

Tucker’s status for Wednesday night against Virginia Tech will obviously be determined the day of the game, depending on whether he has recovered from the flu.

“The big thing is to keep him away from the other guys,” Williams said. “We’re trying. The players do a good job of eating nowadays. They eat much better than guys 20 years ago. Hopefully we’ll be fine.”

zuckermandbk@gmail.com