by Paul Gotham
Surely Maryland junior, Greivis Vasquez, has watched the movie Hoosiers. Even though the classic ‘David vs. Goliath’ tale graced the big screen more than a decade before the 6’6″ guard was born, it is on the required viewing list for every basketball player. Right?
Assuming he fulfilled his requirements for entry into the basketball brotherhood, Vasquez would have to recall one of the early scenes in the movie when Norman Dale (played by Gene Hackman) politely tells the interim coach, George, (played by Chelcie Ross) that his coaching days are over.
George responded: “Look, mister, there’s… two kinds of dumb, uh… guy that gets naked and runs out in the snow and barks at the moon, and, uh, guy who does the same thing in my living room. First one don’t matter, the second one you’re kinda forced to deal with.”
Vasquez should have gleaned some wisdom from those words.
Norman Dale proved worthy of living up to his declaration.
Vasquez on the other hand?
When asked earlier this week about his team’s upcoming ACC game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Vasquez proclaimed: “That’s my house. I love going in there. It’s going to be fun.”
Ye-he-he-he right!
Talk about ‘getting naked and running around.’ We didn’t know that Vasquez is a masochist. How else can one explain his definition of fun?
Vasquez spent the final moments of Saturday’s game on the bench watching as his team endured their worst loss in history to the Duke Blue Devils, 85-44.
In what has to go down as one of the worst cases of tragic amnesia, Vasquez and his Terrapin teammates looked more than weighed down by the unfortunate bulls eye.
Okay so Vasquez posted 25 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists last year at Cameron. That performance came one season after a one-rebound-shy-of-a-triple-double performance his freshman year.
But did he forget what Cameron is like?
Had the Maryland junior made his edict about Bobby Cremins court in Atlanta, people could maybe understand. The student section is safely tucked away from the court and relatively easy to ignore.
If Vasquez said this about the Dean Dome, sure people would scratch their heads, but the wine and cheese alums in Chapel Hill would just wash down those taunts with another chardonnay.
But Cameron?
Oh boy.
Did he forget that the student section is dangerously close to the playing floor? That the ‘Crazies’ need little motivation to scheme new ways of embarrassing opponents?
Vasquez also proved he’s not paying attention in scouting sessions. ‘Cause if he was, he would know that Gerald Henderson is dropping double digit points per game over the last 10 contests. He would know that Duke now has a point guard in Nolan Smith who can break down opposing defenders off the dribble. He would also know that Brian Zoubek is showing signs of life in the post.
Henderson led three Blue Devils in double figures as Duke sprinted to a 40-15 lead at half and never looked back from there.
Duke pounded the offensive glass grabbing 20 of their own misses.
Overall Duke out-rebounded Maryland 52-29.
No – Vasquez decided to ignore all the warning signs.
Grievis, next time you wanna run around naked? Keep it in your own barn.
Grievis – Apparently they don’t teach Walk the Walk, Talk the Talk 101 or Right time to Talk Smack 201 at University of Maryland. Because if they did, you certainly would never give a team bulletin board material to play in THEIR own gym. Plus, you would never make the comments to a fan base that was already planning on making fun of you – before you made the comments.
The next time Luke “Pinhead” Zeller makes a clutch play or shot … IT’LL BE THE FIRST ONE OF HIS WHOLE PATHETIC ND CAREER.
It’s halftime and the Irish are down by 1. If anyone but ‘Gody and K-Mac had game for the Irish, we’d be up by a dozen. Tory Jackson has disappeared in the last couple games and that is very disappointing.
This just in … Duke is REALLY GOOD.
5 minutes left. Please … take K-Mac off the All Casey team. If ANYONE else on ND other than Gody showed up, ND would be winning this game right now. PLEASE …. SOMEONE make a clutch shot for once!!!
First time I ever saw Mike Brey animated in the huddle. They caught him on the courtside mic saying “C’mon guys. Let’s play tough and clutch out there. And don’t worry … win or lose … we’re still having milk and cookies at my house tonight. I’m the team parent this weekend!”
Don’t follow ND basketball as closely as I should, but who is Tyrone Nash? Played final 2 mins and scored ND’s final 8 points! I was impressed, to say the least.
Right now – there is another Norman out there saying this:
” I told you this is a dog eat dog world. And Grievis my friend – you are wearing milk bone underwear.”
Oh God!!!!!
I think I just got mono. Wally gave the Blue Devils the kiss of death.
Pete —
Nash must be a freshman … I don’t recall seeing him play this year, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t. I haven’t seen every game or anything like that. I missed the last 3-4 mins of the UConn game so I missed the 8 points.
Can we now take the ‘really’ away and just call Duke a good team.
Great game and Wake is a very good team.
Question for everyone.. I thought the traveling call on Henderson was suspect. Never had a chance to come down on his feet with the guy underneath him. Good call? Right call?
C’mon Casey. It’s one loss to a great WF team and it was a great game.
Wait … this just in from the news room … what’s that? Ah … right … Duke is still a REALLY good team. There ya go, Casey. Chillax.
Probably the right call was made. If it wasn’t, I would have expected more of an argument from Krzyzsewski. The player on the floor, who caused Henderson to travel, was not trying to make a play on the ball.
Impressive comeback on the road for the Blue Devils.
Still Duke is a good team. At best they are a final four contender. Their ceiling is probably the Elite Eight. They would need some considerable breaks to advance to Detroit.
Duke is GOOD team. 🙂