Greivis Vasquez - Maryland's Boldest

Dictionary.com defines the word bold as:

bold
adjective, -er, -est.
1. not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff; courageous and daring: a bold hero.
2. not hesitating to break the rules of propriety; forward; impudent: He apologized for being so bold as to speak to the emperor.
3. necessitating courage and daring; challenging: a bold adventure.

When you think of recent bold players who've played for the University of Maryland, Greivis Vasquez instantly pops into my mind. The General can be considered one of the Terps' boldest players for a number of reasons but the two I always think of are his willingness to take tough shots and carry the team on his back and his interactions with the fans, both Maryland and opponents. We all remember Greivis bringing the ball up the court against NC State in 2009, with the game well in hand for Maryland and the Terps just needing to dribble out the clock. After being taunted by fans in what some said were some pretty unclassy things to say to a person, Greivis took the bold move of shooting a three pointer as time expired and making it. He later apologized  for it, but we're not debating the sportsmanship of the move - it was certainly bold.

Vasquez also had an uncanny ability to take shots that looked like ones you'd see in a game of horse, not a college basketball game...but often times, they went in and seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing all along. One of the ones I'll never forget was this one against Duke:

One of the other bold moments I'll always remember when it came to Greivis was his amazing performance against Virginia Tech in double overtime in Blacksburg. Vasquez willed the Terps to victory with a 41 point, 7 rebound and six assist stat line, helping to continue Maryland's march to a regular season title split with Duke.

And of course who can forget his triple-double against UNC, helping to propel Maryland to what seemed like an improbably NCAA tournament run. He finished the game with 31 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds.

Greivis Vasquez had a motor that was always running and when he got onto the court, it didn't matter who Maryland was playing. He wanted the ball and he was going to use every ounce of strength he had to try to win the game. That's probably one of the reasons why I loved Greivis when he played at Maryland. He loved his school and wanted to do everything he could to show the world why Maryland was the best. He also accomplished that in what some thought was a little unorthodox and early in his career, he even rubbed some Maryland fans the wrong way. But as he matured and as people got to know him, almost everyone seemed to fall in love with Greivis and his bold style of play. He might turn the ball over, but you knew he was going to make three other brilliant plays to make up for it.