Memphis serves Vasquez humble pie
By Jason King, Yahoo! Sports Mar 21, 8:35 pm EDT
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Before he took the court against Memphis, Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez criticized the Tigers’ schedule and said they needed to face some good competition.
Unfortunately, the Terrapins didn’t come close to providing it.
Freshman standout Tyreke Evans scored 19 points and Doneal Mack added 17 to lead Memphis to an 89-70 victory over Maryland in a yawn of a game at the Sprint Center. The victory catapulted the Tigers – last year’s national runner-up – into the Sweet 16 for the fourth consecutive year.
Memphis, the No. 2 seed in the West Region, will face the winner of Sunday’s Marquette-Missouri game on Thursday in Glendale, Ariz.
“Anyone that would’ve said in December that we’d be a Sweet 16 team … they’d have needed psychiatric help or been doing too many drugs, one of the two,” coach John Calipari said.
Indeed, Memphis was just 6-3 following a Dec. 20 loss to Syracuse. Calipari responded by moving Evans from wing to point guard, and the Tigers (33-3) haven’t lost since.
After a sluggish performance in Thursday’s opening-round victory over Cal State Northridge, Memphis couldn’t have been any more efficient against No. 10 seed Maryland. The Tigers hit eight of their first 11 3-point attempts and led 53-33 at intermission. They shot 58.5 percent for the game.
Although they attempted to downplay it, Vasquez’s pregame comments certainly provided some motivation for Memphis’ inspired play. Among other things, Vasquez said the Tigers would’ve finished with a losing record if they played in the ACC instead of Conference USA, where they went undefeated.
Memphis’ Doneal Mack gets a hand on the ball as Maryland’s Sean Mosley tries to maintain control.
“We all just laughed about it,” Mack said. “It took the monkey off of our backs and put it on theirs.”
Vasquez finished with a team-high 18 points, but 12 of them came in the second half, after the game was all but decided. Vasquez also received a technical foul for chirping at an official.
“They proved me wrong,” Vasquez said. “They proved everybody wrong. They can play with anyone.”
Vasquez said he didn’t regret making the comments.
“That’s what sport is all about,” he said. “I’m not regretting nothing. They’ve got good players and a good coach and they won. It’s nothing else.”
Greivis’ saucy quotes led to some humorous chants late in Saturday’s game. With about five minutes remaining and Memphis clearly in control, Tigers fans began taunting the Terrapins by chanting “A-C-C! A-C-C!”
Calipari motioned for the chant to stop.
Still, by then, Maryland’s fans were infuriated. Some of them began shouting curse words and shooting the bird toward the Memphis section, while others screamed “S-A-T! S-A-T!”
Then, about three-fourths of the arena broke into a “Rock Chalk, Jayhawk” chant to remind the Tigers about last year’s overtime loss to Kansas in the national title game.
