“I love him,” Williams said yesterday as he sat at the conference table in his office at Maryland.
“I love Coach,” Vasquez says often.
- Mike Wise, Washington Post, 6/17/09
And I love both of those guys.
All I have to say is thank goodness for Greivis. For all his trash talking and middle fingering, Vasquez is the heart and soul of the Terrapins, not to mention that he’s also most of their offense. I breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when Vasquez withdrew his name from the NBA Draft. It would have been a shame for him to go undrafted and lose his eligibility, stranding the Terps without a leader and with a big hole in the back court.
In his column, Wise alluded to the fact that Vasquez will use this draft snub as motivation to run faster and jump higher. I disagree with that assessment. Greivis is the one guy that doesn’t have room for more motivation. Whether you love or hate him, you can’t question this guy’s drive. He literally willed the team into the tournament last year.
As for the reports that the Terps have given up on Lance Stephenson, I say good riddance. I’m sure he’s as talented as everyone says he is, and I admit that I’ve written in the past that he could have been the missing link for a deep tournament run this year. But let’s face it, the kid would have brought the circus to town. The last time I wrote about Stephenson I hadn’t realized that he stood accused of sexual assault. Maryland is first and foremost a respected academic institution. Would the school want to bring in a kid that stands accused of sexual assault to be the face of the program? No. Leave that to the Memphises and Floridas of the world. It seemed clear that Williams and Stephenson would have been oil and water. No matter how talented he is, one year with Stephenson could have done more damage than good.
Like last year, the Terps will be coming into this season with front court auditions and holes in the rotation. Unlike last year, the Terps will come into this year knowing they have a guy that can lead the team to the tournament. If the rest of the team works as hard as Greivis does, then there’s hope they can make a legitimate run at the ACC.
I think he will use this as motivation…and we’ll never hear the end of it. He’ll talk for ten minutes about how it doesn’t bother him, and then another ten about how it just motivates him to play better. We’ll see how he does next season against the Morgan States of the world. That will go a long way toward determining whether or to what extent he has matured.
“I jus wan to, ju know, show the NBA what they’re missing. I know I got de skills. But, ehhhh, all de glory goes to my coach Gary Williams. He believes in me and my heart, ju know, and pushes me, and loves me, and I love him.”
Yes, we’ll be hearing about it endlessly, but my point was he doesn’t need the motivation. It was already there. There is a flame inside Greivis that cannot be extinguished. A big, bright, shining flame. That boy has the fire in his eyes. The passion. If he had not chosen basketball I bet he’d be a virtuoso at The Beautiful Game.
Please, for the sake of my sanity, don’t mention Morgan State or Middle Tennessee State again. My heart is fragile. I need an offseason to gain strength and recover from those games.