Some Terp fans were a bit afraid when Greivis Vasquez put up a last-second three pointer against North Carolina State the first time around. The Terps were already up by 8 at the time, but that didn't stop Vaz from running down court and setting up to drain an open, unnecessary three. His reasoning?
N.C. State fans "were talking about me being an immigrant and [having] a green card and stuff like that," he said. Although Vasquez said he later recognized the fans were trying to be funny, "at the moment I thought it was racist."
The fans likely were being disrespectful, but he's a junior - he should've experienced it before and moved past it. The opinions of the other players differed at the time: some thought that NCSt stopped playing early and held no grudges. Others...not so much.
N.C. State guard Javi Gonzalez [said] he'd like to punch Vasquez in the mouth.
"That's still in the back of my mind now. I think that was disrespectful," N.C. State forward Courtney Fells said.
I enjoyed Vasquez's response a bit more:
"When they stay that stuff about me, it just gets me fired up and motivates me to kill them," Vasquez said.
Now, it's obvious there was something lost in translation (much like the "vanquish our adversaries" quote he had last year). Still, it's pretty BA. It sounds like Gonzalez and Vaz want to mix it up a bit. That could get interesting, especially if Gonzalez guards Vaz, which is possible.
Quite a few NCSt players think they have a good chance with this one, and though I can't blame them (after all, Maryland just lost to UVA), I don't really see where it's coming from. Maryland beat them in the only matchup of the year, and it was in Carolina. They don't add anyone, so unless they've gotten better, I don't see why they're particularly confident. It was already set up to be an interesting game - this just adds a bit of extra intrigue.