Additional Quotes >> USA 95, Australia 62

July 8, 2012 • Kaunas, Lithuania

USA head coach Don Showalter (Iowa City High School, Iowa)
On winning the U17 World Championship:
First of all, a lot of people had a lot to do with this trophy. Not only our players bought into our system, but we had two great assistant coaches in Mike Jones and Rich Gray, and the staff here with USA Basketball has been outstanding. It takes more than just a couple people. This is almost a little more enjoyable than our win two years ago in the gold medal game, just because this team had to overcome some adversity, some injuries and various things. I was really proud with our kids for hanging in there. We really didn't have a star, because they all bought into the fact that they were all playing for USA Basketball. I think that showed in the final game.

What do you think made this team so dominating?
A lot of different things. They bought into playing defense, for one thing. You look at our defensive average and it was tremendous. So, they really bought into playing defense. And they really trusted each other. They trusted the coaching staff to have a good game plan. Sometimes kids don't do that real well, but I think this team bought into everything we tried to give them.

More from Showalter.

Listen to what the rest of the team and coaching staff had to say about the USA's gold medal performance (MP3 files)

• USA assistant coach Rich Gray (St. Louis Eagles AAU, Mo.)
• USA assistant coach Mike Jones (DeMatha H.S., Md.)
• BeeJay Anya (DeMatha Catholic H.S. / Gaithersburg, Md.)
  
• Joel Berry (Lake Highland Prep School / Apopka, Fla.)
  
• Stephen Domingo (Saint Ignatius Prep / San Francisco, Calif.)
  
• Conner Frankamp (Wichita North H.S. / Wichita, Kan.)
  
• Dakari Johnson (Montverde Academy, Fla. / Brooklyn, N.Y.)
  
• Stanley Johnson (Mater Dei H.S. / Fullerton, Calif.) || Stanley Johnson #2
  
• Tyus Jones (Apple Valley H.S. / Apple Valley, Minn.)
  
• Kendrick Nunn (Simeon Career Academy / Chicago, Ill.)
  
• Jahlil Okafor (Whitney Young H.S. / Chicago, Ill.)
  
• Jabari Parker (Simeon Career Academy / Chicago, Ill.)
  
• Johnathan Williams (Southwind H.S. / Memphis, Tenn.)
  
• Justise Winslow (St. John’s School / Houston, Texas)