Greivis Vasquez Has a Small Request, Maryland

Maryland Basketball is struggling (whither Steve Blake?!), and the fans in College Park have let it be known by way of boo that struggles ain't cool in Terrapin Red. Via (a PG-13) Mr. Irrelevant, the Washington Post's Eric Prisbell tells us how Terps "star" Greivis Vasquez reacted to the booing in Maryland's tight game against Georgia Tech Saturday.

When Vasquez missed a shot or made a mistake, a cluster of Maryland students either booed the guard or yelled for Vasquez to shape up. And Vasquez responded at least three times by turning toward his classmates (once while dribbling the ball), putting his index finger over his lips and telling them to "Shut the [expletive] up!"

And Vasquez didn't come off as sorry once the emotions of a frustrating near-loss calmed.

"If they don't believe in us, they can get the hell out. We don't need them anyway. We need the people who will support us, who are with us. I know they are all happy now, but they didn't believe in us when we were down."

Booing your own is an odd situation: it's warranted at times, necessary at others, and often the product of frustration mirrored inside the players being booed. In Vasquez, the inferno is just being fed: Vasquez is upset he wasn't playing well, and when you're upset it's easy to get even more upset because of outside sources. But you're an athlete hoping to go pro, man. This is something you going to have to deal with if you want to play basketball for cash. You expect some NBA owner to be cool with you telling paying fans to go away?

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.