Can Greivis Vasquez bring Maryland redemption in his final days with the Terrapins?
The Venezuelan guard has been Maryland’s top player for four years. Indeed, the John Wooden Award finalist ranks among the school’s top-10 offensive players. And fans argue whether he belongs among the top-10 Terps legends, too.
But has it been enough to resurrect a program that peaked with a 2002 national title after reaching its first Final Four the previous year? A disastrous recruiting class then spent four years derailing the program. By the time Eric Hayes, Landon Milbourne and Vasquez reached campus in 2006, Georgetown again had supplanted Maryland as the top local program.
But Maryland is a No. 4 seed and faces No. 13 Houston in its NCAA Tournament opener Friday. The Terps shared the ACC regular-season title with 13 conference wins. The 20th-ranked Terps didn’t need a late-season miracle to reach their third dance in Vasquez’s four years.
Vasquez has restored the Terps to the national mindset. Now can he lead them deep into the tournament?
“We want to do something remarkable. We want to do something special,” the ACC player of the year said. “It’s time to go. We want to be on the stage. It’s going to be fun. It’s not going to easy, but it’s going to be fun. It’s March Madness. It’s going to be fun.”
Fun would be beating Houston easily, then dispatching dangerous fifth-seed Michigan State to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2003. But real fun would be upsetting No. 1 overall seed Kansas in the third round. An Elite Eight berth would end the post-championship malaise of eight years.
Coach Gary Williams knows the Terps are dangerous when Vasquez and Hayes are clicking on the outside and freshman Jordan Williams and Milbourne own the inside. Maryland can compete with anyone; it knocked off No. 1 seed Duke two weeks ago. But it also could exit quickly.
“Once you get into the tournament those seeds don’t mean anything,” Williams said. “There’s your bracket, that’s who you’ve got to play and whoever plays well wins this thing. We were a No. 1 seed when we won it. There’s probably an advantage of being a No. 1 seed, but after that a lot depends on your bracket, a lot depends on if you run into a hot team. I think you go in there with a very positive attitude and you snowball quickly. Things can happen quickly.”
No matter where Maryland finishes, Williams knows this was a season that ended the Terps’ lackluster stretch.
“A lot of times, unfortunately, you are judged on whether you make the tournament,” he said. “We made the tournament and are proud of that.”
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at www.TheRickSniderReport.com TheRickSniderReport.com and www.twitter.com/snide_remarks Twitter @Snide_Remarks or
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