The legacy of Greivis Vasquez

When Korie Lucious sunk his three-pointer to eliminate the Maryland men’s basketball team from the NCAA Tournament, an era passed in Maryland basketball.

An interesting era, a unique era, an emotional era, and sometimes, a bizarre era.

It’s the Greivis Vasquez era. For four years, Maryland basketball was Vasquez.

I came across this blog post by Kevin Van Valkenburg of The Baltimore Sun, as Van Valkenburg attempts to define the legacy of Vasquez shortly after Maryland elimination in the second round of the tournament.

Van Valkenburg, near the top of his blog post, gives us a proper introduction that must be examined before we look further into Vasquez’s legacy:

“Vasquez passed Len Bias on Sunday to become Maryland’s 2nd all-time leading scorer behind Juan Dixon, but years from now, when we think about him, stats are never going to accurately paint a proper picture of what his career was like. He’ll likely go down as one of the most interesting college athletes to ever pass through College Park, and if you followed his career, you likely ran the gamut of emotions. He was erratic and emotional, fabulous and frenetic, courageous and captivating, sometimes all in one game.”

Second-all time leading scorer, even better than the legendary Len Bias.

Second.

Vasquez also became the first player in ACC history to score at least 2,000 points and record at least 700 assists and 600 rebounds in his career.

One of the most interesting athletes to ever pass through College Park? Heck, Vasquez is probably one of the most interesting people to ever pass through College Park. Erratic and emotional? Fabulous and frenetic? Courageous and captivating? Yeah, that sounds about right.

Van Valkenburg is absolutely correct when he mentions that these kinds of emotions for fans could be experienced in one game. How many times has Vasquez gone on a great scoring run, pumping up the Comcast Center to insane levels, only to throw up a 35-foot three-ball a possession later for, well, his heat check.

How many times has Vasquez been ice cold all game, seemingly forcing all of his three-pointers and drives to the lane, only to get hot at exactly the correct time late in the game?

Now, Van Valkenburg gives us a little perspective:

“I’m not sure anyone can ever understand how hard it must have been for him to enroll at Maryland with only a limited grasp of English in 2006. The pressures of college are hard enough without having to juggle athletics — plus academics in a language that’s not your own — and think of what it must have been like at times for him. Thousands of miles from his home and his family, struggling at times to find his role in Maryland’s program, only vaguely understanding the frequent criticism half the fan base is throwing at you.”

Awesome points here from Van Valkenburg. As a student at College Park, I can tell you how demanding and difficult collegiate academics can be as a freshman. People who were formerly freshmen, like I am now, can probably tell you about the sometimes very difficult academic transition from high school to college. And I can’t even to begin to imagine how hard it must be to go to a different country to go to college for your freshman year, especially when you have no idea about the language and culture of that particular foreign country.

Throw in big-time, highly pressurized ACC basketball, which is essentially a 24 hour a day job. As a freshman, Vasquez averaged 28.8 minutes per game. In other words, it was learning on the job. There was no comfortable transition – Vasquez was thrown right into the fire.

Perspective enough for you?

Anyway, Van Valkenburg continues, as he writes about Vasquez’s unusual antics and personality, and how it translated to his playing style:

“It was sort of a learning experience for us too. Gary Williams had to explain to people countless times that Venezuelan culture was expressive, flamboyant, unapologetic and emotional. That’s why Vasquez was the way he was, and he wasn’t changing. His antics still rubbed some people the wrong way, as did the way Vasquez played — launching ill-advised 3-pointers, throwing one-handed passes, driving the lane without much of a plan. When it worked, it was beautiful chaos. When it didn’t, it felt like one man trying to do too much.”

Some athletes are calm off the court, but once they step onto the court, they’re intense as anyone else on the court.

For Vasquez, his personality equated to his play on the court. Crazy and unique personality, crazy and unique style of play. That unique style of play frustrated the fan base to no end when the 25-footers with 30 seconds left on the shot clock clanked off the rim, but when those same shots connected, it pumped up the fan base like no other Maryland player could in the last four years.

Vasquez’s personality was never going to change. His style of play was never going to change. It was what it was.

But that same personality got him into some interesting situations, too. Writes Van Valkenburg:

“When Vasquez was booed by a small group of his own fans after a late-season victory over Georgia Tech last year, he told his fellow students, in not so subtle terms, to go to hell. Williams defended him. And when Williams was under fire from Maryland fans, the media, and his own athletic department last year, it was Vasquez who had his coach’s back, lashing out at reporters.”

Do you honestly think Vasquez would have brushed aside his own student section talking bad about him and his team? Do you honestly think Vasquez, who is extremely close to his coach of the past four years, Gary Williams, would have ignored media openly questioning his coach?

No.Vasquez responded. That’s who Vasquez is. That’s what he does. There was no changing that.

After dabbling with the idea of the NBA Draft and finding the waters murky at best, Vasquez came back to Maryland, where expectations for this year’s team were relatively low. Vasquez responded with by far the best season of his four years at Maryland, averaging 19.6 points, 6.3 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game, and led Maryland to an ACC regular season co-championship with a 13-3 conference record. Key in Vasquez’s conference performances was his increased maturity from previous years, as he became the true senior leader on Maryland this season.

Vasquez was obviously the key cog for Maryland during conference play after a less than ideal non-conference performance. Against North Carolina, Vasquez dropped 26 points and had 11 assists. Against Virginia at the Comcast Center, Vasquez scored 25 first half points (30 for the game) and had eight rebounds. On the road at NC State, Vasquez sparked a big second half comeback victory.

Against Clemson at home, Vasquez dropped 15 points and had 13 assists, while helping to spark a 12-0 second half run that all but won the game for Maryland. Vasquez won the double-overtime battle at Virginia Tech for Maryland by scoring 41 points.

Against Duke, Vasquez essentially won the ACC Player of the Year award by out-dueling fellow candidate Jon Scheyer and helped Maryland beat Duke with 20 points and five assists. In the last game of the regular season at Virginia, Vasquez clinched the victory with three three-pointers in four possessions towards the end of regulation despite being ice-cold all game.

But the big game was against Duke. For Vasquez, it seemed like validation. Maryland had beaten Duke on Senior Night at the Comcast Center. After embracing his coach during the pre-game ceremony as he would never let go, Vasquez won the game with a play that typified his entire college career:

A drive to the lane followed by a crazy 12-foot floater by Vasquez as he is falling towards the right corner? To clinch the victory against Duke? On Senior Night?

A perfect way to end for Vasquez, whose penchant for taking (and making) crazy shots became a trademark of his.

Yes, this is all great, the saying will go. The ACC Player of the Year award and the ACC regular season title are both great. But what have Vasquez’s teams done in the NCAA Tournament?

It’s a fair question. The answer is that his teams haven’t done much in the tournament. His freshmen, junior and senior years ended during the second round of the NCAA Tournament, while Maryland was NIT-bound during Vasquez’s sophomore year.

Will Maryland’s lack of postseason success during his four years taint Vasquez’s legacy? Sure it will. But it certainly won’t define Vasquez’s legacy.

What will is that Vasquez was Maryland basketball for four years. If one takes away Vasquez from Maryland’s program for his four years, is Maryland even the least bit relevant nationally? Heck, is it even relevant within its own conference?

The answer is no.

That’s what Vasquez’s legacy will be when No. 21 is raised to the rafters of the Comcast Center.