Additional Quotes >> USA 88, Brazil 77

Oct. 27, 2011 • Guadalajara, Mexico

Nate Tibbetts
USA head coach

How concerned were you when your team fell behind by 17 points?
We’ve got competitive guys and we stayed with it, we never hung our heads. We could of hung our heads but we kept competing, we stayed with it and I’m just really proud of our guys.

How big is this victory for your team in terms of confidence?
I think it is really big. Last night was our first win ever as a team so every game that we play hopefully gains us confidence with what we’re trying to do. Our guys stayed with it. We had some guys step up off the bench, Justin Dentmon and Blake Ahearn played great and that’s huge.

Can you talk about what Blake Ahearn brings to this team?
He can really soot, that’s who he is, that’s what he’s about, but the thing I was most proud of tonight was the way he brought leadership to our team. He really kind of slowed our guys down and just said ‘hey let’s keep out composure.’ Blake was really, really good tonight.

How is it to coach these D-League players, guys who are looking for their space in the basketball world.
The reason I like these guys is because they have a chip on their shoulder, they are trying to find their place in the basketball world like you said. But these guys love to play and they love playing with the United States on their chest. This is maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity for our guys and they are taking advantage of it.

It’s been since 1983 since the USA won gold, have you talked about that?
It’s something we’ve talked about. You know it’s been a long time, we’ve got a lot of work before we get to that point. We’re just going to try to get better every game and I thought we made a big step here tonight.

Brazil had a 17 point advantage and in the end lost by 11 points.
We just kind of got hot and we stayed hot. That’s a really good team over there and they competed at a high level and we have a lot of respect for them.

At what point could you feel the energy change, the defensive pressure pick up?
That four-point play (by Jerome Dyson) because I was thinking about that time to take out Dice, we came with Marcus Lewis and Lance (Thomas) and those two are playing with a ton of energy right now. They’re quite a tandem coming off the bench and that gave us some life.

The thing that I’m most proud of is our guys never stopped staying together. It’s easy when you put a team together and things are going wrong to start pointing fingers. But we had some great leadership tonight from Blake Ahearn and Renaldo (Major), they were unbelievable, just telling these guys to stay the course.

How do you get ready for tomorrow?
That’s a good question. We’re going to enjoy this until midnight anyway and then our focus has to be on Uruguay. They’re a tam that hasn’t won yet but that doesn’t matter because they play extremely hard. Our assistant coach, Jermaine Byrd, was here today and he said this is the hardest any team has played so you know this is going to be a great challenge.

Have you been involved in a game with that big of a swing in the score?
You know one time long ago when I was coaching in the CBA in the first year we scored 41 in the fourth Quarter and came back and won, But nothing at this type of stage. Man, I’m just so proud of our guys and the way they competed. We had a game plan and they really executed it and they just stayed with it.

Blake Ahearn
(Erie BayHawks / Missouri State '07)

On the team’s 50-22 run to end the game.
It’s beneficial when you’ve got 12 guys who can play. Coach said coming into this week that no everybody is going to play well every night, but we were fortunate enough to have guys who were ready to step up. It wasn’t just one guy, we had so many guys at different points in the game who made plays for us and even the guys who weren’t in they were on the bench cheering us on. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us and we’re trying to make the most of it.

Talk about the fourth quarter when you started scoring and got the team going, dud you start feeling it?
Yeah, when you get out there on the floor a little bit, it’s a little bit easier to play. We knew coming in that at times it’s going to be tough just with the amount of guys. I was able to get a couple of layups, knock some shots down, and coach stuck with me and we just took it from there. Like I said, it wasn’t just me, there were a whole bunch of guys doing it and that’s what makes it the most fun.

How about the defensive effort in the second half; Brazil only had one field goal in the fourth quarter until about the 2:30 mark:
That’s what was great. For us, our defense led to offense and Dice (Dyson) did a heck of a job picking up the ball full court. It started out there, we were just moving around, talking, being a team and good things happen when you do that.

Justin Dentmon
(Texas Legends / Washington '09)

Have you been involved in a game like that before where you overcame such a big deficit?
I don’t know, but that was a big win. We need to come out like how we finished in the first half. The way we turned it up on defense is how we’re going to win games. We get turnover and then we’re able to run the floor.

Your four point play seemed to help the team get it going, could you feel the momentum change?
Yeah, that’s the kind of basketball me and coach play at Tulsa, but the biggest thing was we turned it up on defense and we set the tone. I felt like I had to do that out there to get the guys going, but it starts on the defensive end for us.

How big is a comeback like that for the team?
It’s real big because we know that going on from here there’s going to be battles. To know that we were able to come back, able to fight back in games, is going to be big because there’s a lot of great teams ahead that have been playing together for a long time and we’ve been together for a week-an- a-half - two weeks now and it’s great that we were able to come together and put together a big win like this.

Jerome Dyson
(Tulsa 66ers / Connecticut '10)

Have you been involved in a game like that before where you overcame such a big deficit?
It’s fighting for the best all-time finish….I think we pulled together, we came together as a brotherhood and as we trusted each other more and more on defense we were able to get more stops to get more opportunities at the basket.

How key was the USA’s defense?
It was real key. We didn’t let the referees get us down, we kept being physical, physical, kept putting the pressure on referees to make the calls. At the end they started letting us play a little more and then we started getting stops.

What was the difference between the start of the third quarter and the finish in the third quarter?
The difference was, I think we came out a little lackadaisical and once we got some fresh legs in there then we really picked it up because if you see problems on the bench you go in the game and correct them and that’s what we did.

How important is to have the depth this team has where anyone can come off the bench and contribute?
That’s very important. I don’t think there are many countries that can do that. That is what’s important about the United States’ team, we all put our egos aside and came together.