When the Maryland Terps take the court tonight against Miami in their first ACC road game, the guy wearing No. 21 will look like the same Greivis Vasquez who exploded in anger at the student section during Saturday's comeback victory over Georgia Tech at Comcast Center, but it will be a slightly different guy.
The new Greivis isn't going to scream expletives at the crowd again anytime soon and - I presume - he's not going to make a post-game statement that the paying customers in College Park can take a hike if they don't want to support the team through thick and thin. His behavior during and after Saturday's game was not acceptable, and he knows it.
"I'm definitely not like that," Vasquez said by phone last night. "I'm a better guy than that. I'm here and I'm grateful to be here and I'm grateful to have fans who love me and people who have supported me in this country. I want a second chance and I want to apologize to everybody who I might have offended."
That apology seemed heartfelt. It might have been a little long in coming, but I'm guessing that the people at Maryland were just kind of hoping the incident would remain under the radar or get lost in a week of Ravensmania.
"I addressed the issue with Greivis after the game and yesterday, and that's behind us," Terps coach Gary Williams told reporters before the team traveled south yesterday. "You can't do that no matter what was said, and there were some really bad things said besides the booing from the crowd. But given that, you still can't respond. Greivis understands that, and I think you will not see that again."
We can only hope. The guy can play and he's a joy to watch whether he's slashing to the basket, making a three or just injecting his own particular brand of energy into the game. He's also, by all accounts, a very nice young man who let his emotions get away from him and then compounded the situation with his comments after the game.
"We're 12 and 3," he said Saturday. "We were 9 and 5 last year about this time. What the hell are they thinking? If they don't want to believe in us, get the hell out. We don't need them here. We need the people who are going to support and be with us. I want to say thank you to the people who were supporting us and believing in us. If you don't want to support us, get out."
