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ACC Notebook: Terrapins' Vasquez is unhappy with home fans
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Published: January 16, 2009
Updated: 01/16/2009 12:15 am
■ Point guard Greivis Vasquez of Maryland put an index finger to his lips last Saturday against Georgia Tech to tell the home crowd to quiet down.
Fans in the Comcast Center weren't happy with Maryland trailing by eight. The Terrapins came back to win 68-61, but Vasquez still had some choice words for the fans.
"I don't want people to come over to me that don't believe in what I do and what I'm trying to do for the team," he said. "We're 12-3. We were 9-5 last year about this time.
"What they hell were they thinking? It's a completely different team. If they don't want to believe in us, they can get the hell out."
■ Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke believes that the ACC could do more to showcase its basketball.
The ACC is the No. 1 rated conference in the Ratings Percentage Index and the Sagarin Computer Rankings, but Krzyzewski feels that the conference should emphasize that it has four teams in the top 10 of both national polls.
"Come on; it's just obvious," he said. "Why don't we just say something about it? It'll all be good."
■ Clemson is again one of the nation's last unbeaten teams and is gearing up for two games that can make for a bigger season.
First up will be Wake Forest, also unbeaten, for a game Saturday at Littlejohn Coliseum. Next Wednesday, Clemson will play North Carolina and try to end its 0-for-forever losing streak in Chapel Hill.
"It's going to be crazy," center Trevor Booker said, looking ahead to Wake Forest.
■ Coach Paul Hewitt of Georgia Tech might want to try to avoid playing any more ACC games on Jan. 10.
Tech has had four 28-turnover games under Hewitt, and three have been in ACC games on Jan. 10.
The most recent was at Maryland, when the turnovers led to the loss of a 10-point lead with 9:44 left and an eventual 68-61 loss.
Maryland's hadn't forced an ACC team into 28 turnovers since a 1999 game against N.C. State.
And that game was also played on Jan. 10.
■ Freshman Sylven Landesberg of Virginia took exception to a few Virginia Tech plays in last week's 78-75 loss in Blacksburg.
Sam Zeglinski and Calvin Booker ran into bone-jarring picks set by Virginia Tech's Jeff Allen. The picks seemed legal to many media members at the game, but not to Landesberg.
"There were a few blows," he said. "They took it to us. They were playing physical, with some dirty shots here and there. It was just a real physical, trash-talking game."
■ Turnovers aren't Georgia Tech's only shortcoming. There's also free-throw shooting.
Tech was shooting 58.9 percent from the line before losing Wednesday to Duke, a game in which it shot 36.8 percent (7 of 19). The worst free-throw shooting team in Tech history shot 61.1 percent in 1981.
Clemson entered the week as the ACC's second-worst free-throw shooting team at 67.8 percent. If Clemson maintains its percentage, Georgia Tech could make 102 straight free throws and still be last in the conference.
Gani Lawal was shooting 54.1 percent before Wednesday, an improvement after he shot 49.5 percent last season.
"I'm not dumb. Teams are going to attack me and try to put me on the foul line," Lawal said. "They're going to say, ‘Foul Lawal,' so I'm constantly working on that part of the game."
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