Additional Quotes >> USA 108, Latvia 72

June 24, 2012 • Las Palmas, Canary Islands

USA head coach Don Showalter (Iowa City High School, Iowa)
On tonight’s game:
Latvia played really well tonight. I thought they came out hard and we were a little lax. But at the same time, I thought our team really rebounded well, played some great defense and got some easy baskets that way. Overall, I was very pleased with the way we played.

Is this tournament a good challenge for your team to prepare for the FIBA U17 World Championship?
The people here in the Canary Islands have been very good to us. I think it’s a great place to be and a great tournament. Our kids are enjoying the Canary Islands and we appreciate everything they’re doing for us.

Was this a good first game for your team and what do you need to work on from tonight’s game?
For us, I think it was a typical first game, which is why we want to play this tournament in the Canary Islands before we go to the U17 World Championship. It told us a few things we need to work on. I didn’t think our defensive rotation was real good at times. We gave up too many easy threes. Latvia did a great job of moving the basketball and a lot of times our kids were a little late getting there. Our free-throw shooting was a little suspect. I think we were only about 50 percent from the free-throw line. So, those are things. They’re all things that can be corrected, but our kids were just anxious to play a game after a long trip. I think now they understand the level we have to get to, which is good.

Were you happy with how the guys who were playing in their first international game responded?
 We have five new players on this team who are a little unsure about what international basketball is like. I thought they reacted very well to it. It takes a little bit to understand that international basketball is a little different from American basketball from the standpoint of team play, they make the extra pass. We saw tonight with Latvia that they make the extra pass. It got us a little off-balanced in our rotation. Those kids are coming around, though and I think they’ll adjust.

Was there something you were working on after the game was well in hand?
Yeah, obviously when the score expanded, even at halftime, we felt pretty good about it. But, now you want to work on players getting into different positions. We put Justise Winslow in there a little bit at point guard. We played both BeeJay Anya and Dakari (Johnson) or he and Jahlil (Okafor) together. So, it kind of gave us a little opportunity to see what our line-up can be.

Stephen Domingo (Saint Ignatius Prep / San Francisco, Calif.)
What did you think about playing in your first game for USA Basketball?
It’s a completely different atmosphere. The game moves really fast. The international players are really good, we just have to be physical with them. It started off a little slow, but in the second quarter we really got on them. We really got physical in the second quarter.

In addition to cutting down on the turnovers and making your free throws, what else does the team need to work on?
We need to just focus. They were running a couple plays over and over again, and they were scoring on them on the screens. So, we just need to focus and recognize that if they’re running the same play, we can jump that play, get steals out of it and get more points.

What do you think will be the hallmark of this team?
As you can see with our big men, our big men were really doing a good job of controlling the middle tonight. Then, also if the team wants to zone us out of that, Conner (Frankamp) and I and a couple of other guys showed that we can really shoot the ball. You basically can’t hold us in any way. But, I think our big men will be a good hallmark of our team, along with our defense, obviously.

Dakari Johnson (Montverde Academy, Fla. / Brooklyn, N.Y.)
What did you think about playing in your first game for USA Basketball?
It was really different. The style of play is really physical. I wasn’t use to it, but around the second quarter and in the second half, I really got a feel for it. I got more comfortable as the game went on.

You were obviously much bigger than your Latvian counterpart. How easy was that go to up against a smaller player?
I wouldn’t say it was easy, because they think the game more. I just got used to it. As the game went on it just got easier to score.

What are some of the differences between international basketball and what you play back home?
Back home it’s more about individual play, but out here they really make the extra pass. We really have to lock down more on defense and scramble around, because every single one of them can shoot and move the ball well.

Tyus Jones (Apple Valley H.S. / Apple Valley, Minn.)
On tonight’s game:
We came out kind of tentative, not aggressive and with not enough intensity. We got down in the first quarter and we realized that that was not how it’s supposed to be. So we picked up the intensity, picked up our defensive pressure and got it going.

Is your defense going to be the key to this team?
Most definitely. In the second quarter and in the beginning of the third quarter our defensive pressure picked up a lot, and that’s kind of where our lead came from. Our defense is going to win us games, so we have to buckle down, just get some stops, pressure them and not let them set up their offense.

It looked like you were all having fun playing together, was that the case?
It was definitely a lot of fun to finally get out there and play a game. With over a week of practicing mostly against each other, we finally were able to get out there and get on the court. It was a lot of fun getting out there and playing with the guys. It was definitely a blast.

Jahlil Okafor (Whitney Young H.S. / Chicago, Ill.)
On tonight’s game:
We got off to a slow start. Coach Showalter got on us after the first quarter. He let us know that we weren’t playing how we were supposed to be playing and after that we turned up our intensity. We have our gold medal standards and we weren’t playing by those gold medal standards. He got onto us and we picked it up.

What do you feel still needs work?
We need to work on our defense. There were a bunch of screen and rolls and we let them get open at times. They had a bunch of open 3-point shots, they had like 10 or 11 open shots. We have to work on communicating more.

Did you feel that with your size you could just pound away on the inside?
Yeah, the defenders, they were tall but they were real thin. So, I used my body to score a lot.

What did you think of the play of Tyus Jones?
I love playing with Tyus. With him, you just have to run the floor and he will find you. So, it was good having him out there.