Patrick Stevens The Washington Times - February 22, 2009, 09:04AM

You want a weird number?

How’s this:

SEE RELATED:

Maryland just beat the nation’s No. 3 team, a North Carolina bunch anointed as a sure-fire national champion before the season, and the Terrapins did it even though they were outscored when four of their five starters were on the floor.

Think about that for a moment. How does that happen?

Cliff Tucker, that’s how.

The sophomore uncorked a +21 day, which in an overtime game against such a superb opponent is ridiculous.

It’s a one-game sample size. But Tucker was on the floor for a good stretch in the first half, for the erasure of a 14-point deficit (he came in just after Maryland cut it from 16) and the entire overtime.

So Cliff Tucker? A pretty amazing force yesterday.

Here’s the full rundown of yesterday’s game:

Player

UNC   

ACC

Per Min.

Season

Per Min.

1-Milbourne

-9

-66

-0.18

+46

0.06

4-Dupree

DNP

-23

-0.48

-33

-0.14

5-Hayes

+12

-16

-0.05

+130

0.17

11-Kim

DNP

+11

0.22

+23

0.17

14-Mosley

-6

-49

-0.10

-22

-0.04

21-Vasquez

+3

-60

-0.14

+89

0.10

22-Bowie

-9

-45

-0.15

+113

0.17

23-Pearman

DNP

+2

0.50

+6

0.50

24-Tucker

+21

-29

-0.21

-20

-0.07

25-Goins

DNP

-2 

-0.67

+5

0.42

32-Burney

+7

-1

 -0.05

+18

0.26

33-Gregory

-2

-46

-0.24

+34

0.09

35-Neal

-2

-15

-0.05

+92

0.16

—- Patrick Stevens