In life, you may never get a second chance to make a first impression.
But if you bomb it as badly as Michigan State did in its 98-63 loss to North Carolina in December that was godawful embarrassing even by the standards of a stadium that hosts the Lions, you'll get months, if not a lifetime, to explain exactly what went wrong.
And if you're the Spartans, you get a second chance to make it right.
At least after you explain. And explain. And explain.
For the past several years, the NCAA Tournament selection committee has gone to great lengths to stress they do not consider conferences when awarding spots in the prestigious field of 65. Those sentiments, however, immediately fall upon deaf ears when fans clamor for reasons why their certain sweetheart team didn't make the Big Dance.
This season, it was St. Mary's that was unfairly left out, while the Big Ten and Arizona were the great scapegoats, and the masses fell over themselves to tell us how great the Big East and ACC were. We examined the pre-tournament expectations for each conference last week. In our conference breakdown, we'll check out what the expected record for the conference was to this point, and see how each performed in terms of expectations.
Greivis Vasquez probably should have kept his mouth shut. I guess I should specify, considering this is a guy who never shuts up. He's cussed out his own fans for God's sake. As the saying goes, it's probably best to keep your mouth shut when people think you are a fool -- rather than opening your mouth and removing all doubt.
Prior to Saturday's contest against highly-touted Memphis, Vasquez once again just couldn't help himself.
If Maryland coach Gary Williams earned a nickel for every time he's been left for dead, he'd be able to solve this economic mess with the walk-around change in his left pocket and pay the legal defense fund of the Dallas Cowboys with the money in his right. Pay the man by check, and you'd burn through enough paper that the rain forests would be more aptly known as the rain bushes.
In the seven years since he won Maryland's only national basketball championship, Williams has been fitted for more pine boxes than suits, and yet he's still come back more times than a has-been boxer.
Greg Paulus is always a bit of a goat in terms of national hatred (see: "Duke Sucks" having more entries at Mister I than "Greives Vasquez".) Of course, he's following a long line of Duke point guards who have experienced the same thing. Although I don't know if they all heard "Tea-Bag-Paul-Us!" as the announcers in the following clip seemed to imply while the Virginia Tech fans mocked the Duke point guard during some free throw attempts.
The Maryland Terrapins broke out the Ronald McDonald, french-fry yellow unis for Saturday afternoon's game against the third-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels, and for 30 minutes they played like a bunch of players destined for careers in the fast-food industry, or at least a profession that doesn't involve dribbling basketballs.
Junior guard -- and on-court cheerleader -- Greivis Vasquez scored the Terps' first 16 points to keep the game close, and then he didn't make another basket until 21 game minutes later. By that time, Maryland trailed by 16 and their already slim chances of backing into the NCAAs seemed pretty much gone.
The Maryland Terrapins haven't lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels since 2005-06. Seems pretty crazy, no? Of course, regardless of that run, you would think Maryland's players would have snuck into tonight's game against Carolina somewhat humbly, having already run their mouths before getting embarrassed by Duke this year.
They did not though. At least Landon Milbourne didn't, anyway. He made sure to point out the streak to the Diamondback, Maryland's student newspaper.
The Cameron Crazies are often thought of as "funny." "Creative" is probably a better description though. Whatever, they manage to generally heckle opposing players. When Greivis Vasquez called Cameron Indoor "my house," they freaked. Only they managed to freak without being funny, as they displayed on ESPN Saturday. Someone get FAILblog on alert.
The Maryland Terrapins have plenty of reason to be cocky heading to Durham, N.C., tomorrow to take on Duke. After all, they're 2-2 in the ACC (13-5 overall) and are on a vicious one-game winning streak after squeaking by the embarrassingly bad Virginia Cavaliers in College Park.
Oh, and Duke is decent too.
Yes, "plenty of reason" here does mean "no excuse," thanks for asking. But the circumstances surrounding the game aren't stopping Greivis Vasquez, who I don't believe is a graduate of the Milford School, from speaking out in really, really silly fashion (not his first time this year, either).
In the world of ACC basketball, you have many enemies. And few friends. The latter consists primarily of: your teammates and your fans. You do not want to anger your fans, even if they're giving you a hard time occasionally.
Greivis Vasquez does not seem to understand this. Despite averaging 17.9 points (sixth best in the ACC)and 6.2 boards (12th in the conference) per game, Vasquez caught some flak from a few students recently. The bigger problem is that he didn't exactly play through it, deciding instead to let loose a not-so-polite phrase in the direction of the group.
In life, you may never get a second chance to make a first impression. 
For the past several years, the NCAA Tournament selection committee has gone to great lengths to stress they do not consider conferences when awarding spots in the prestigious field of 65. Those sentiments, however, immediately fall upon deaf ears when fans clamor for reasons why their certain sweetheart team didn't make the Big Dance. 
Greivis Vasquez probably should have kept his mouth shut. I guess I should specify, considering this is a guy who never shuts up. He's cussed out his own fans for God's sake. As the saying goes, it's probably best to keep your mouth shut when people think you are a fool -- rather than opening your mouth and removing all doubt. 
If Maryland coach Gary Williams earned a nickel for every time he's been left for dead, he'd be able to solve this economic mess with the walk-around change in his left pocket and pay the legal defense fund of the Dallas Cowboys with the money in his right. Pay the man by check, and you'd burn through enough paper that the rain forests would be more aptly known as the rain bushes.
The Maryland Terrapins broke out the Ronald McDonald, french-fry yellow unis for Saturday afternoon's game against the third-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels, and for 30 minutes they played like a bunch of players destined for careers in the fast-food industry, or at least a profession that doesn't involve dribbling basketballs. 
The Maryland Terrapins haven't lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels since 2005-06. Seems pretty crazy, no? Of course, regardless of that run, you would think Maryland's players would have snuck into tonight's game against Carolina somewhat humbly, having already run their mouths before getting embarrassed by Duke this year.
The Maryland Terrapins have plenty of reason to be cocky heading to Durham, N.C., tomorrow to take on Duke. After all, they're 2-2 in the ACC (13-5 overall) and are on a vicious one-game winning streak after squeaking by the embarrassingly bad Virginia Cavaliers in College Park. 
In the world of ACC basketball, you have many enemies. And few friends. The latter consists primarily of: your teammates and your fans. You do not want to anger your fans, even if they're giving you a hard time occasionally. 
