Terps' top pair gets a just reward

Greivis Vasquez's story is well-known but to hear him recount the emotional details yesterday put it in a new perspective.

The ACC Player of the Year award is his crowning achievement, the final chapter of his storybook journey from the Venezuelan barrios to his status as one of the best basketball players in the history of this university.

He spoke yesterday of the isolation he felt when he first came to this country to play at Montrose Christian School in Rockville six years ago, when he barely knew any English and had nobody to communicate with.

He spoke of leaving his divorced mother behind in Venezuela, and how tough it was to know she cried every day he was gone.

Vasquez sacrificed his entire life at home to make something of himself here, and he did it on his terms.

That is why, in a much more profound way than his stellar career on the court, Vasquez deserves this award.

"Nothing is impossible in this world," Vasquez said. "Nothing."

Gary Williams' story is not quite as dramatic, but it is fitting he won the ACC Coach of the Year award on the very same day.

Williams said he would "be on a boat home in about two weeks" had he faced the situation Vasquez did. But he has overcome his own adversity in recent years.

People have criticized him for not maintaining the program's high level of success after the national championship in 2002. They have questioned his ability to recruit the best players, and, at their most venomous, have argued he should have stepped down from his position.

But Williams never wavered.

He has attacked his job with the same fire and passion as always, and he has fiercely stood by his players no matter what anybody said about them.

Now he has been recognized as the best coach in his league, even if he doesn't want to take all the credit.

"I can be the best coach in the history of mankind, but if I didn't have the best players, it wouldn't matter," Williams said.

Vasquez and Williams seem to embody the everyman spirit of this university.

Their closest competition for their respective awards were Duke guard Jon Scheyer and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who don't have many fans around here.

Scheyer and Krzyzewski are great at what they do, and surely work very hard at it.  But if you are human — and have that slightly insecure anti-Duke chip on your shoulder — you have to appreciate the justice of Vasquez and Williams getting the nod.

The way Gary and Greivis do things isn't always pretty. It isn't always traditional, and it isn't always with a style a blue-blooded Dookie would especially appreciate.

But it is unquestionably effective, and their success is well-deserved.

"We've got some similar things in terms of the drive," Williams said. "He's got that drive where he just doesn't let critics determine how good he can be."

Their stories are very different, but in the end, the themes are very similar.
It's why Vasquez and Williams have been such an interesting pair to follow for the past four years.

It's why they both deserved to win their league's highest individual awards, and it's why it's fitting they both won them on the very same day.

schimmel@umdbk.com