Additional Quotes >> USA 82, Venezuela 73

July 14, 2008 � Formosa, Argentina

USA head coach Bob McKillop, Davidson College
How challenging is it to compete against a team you know nothing about, one you�ve never seen before?
I remember Venezuela in 2002 (at the 2002 FIBA Americas U18 Championship) from a standpoint of being a highly-motivated, well-coached, very intense team. What we saw today was no different. They were highly motivated, they brought a degree of intensity, they were able to spread us out, make a couple of threes, they were able to drive and draw some fouls.

I�m delighted with the way our guys hung in there, didn�t panic when we were down early. We didn�t start pointing fingers, we just dug deeper and somehow found a way to get the lead and hold that double-digit lead until the last possession of the game.

Often other teams can�t keep pace with the USA due to the depth, do you think that was a factor today?
Yes, but I need to do a better job of managing minutes. I think perhaps I gave one or two guys too many minutes and one or two guys too few minutes. I need to do a better job of that. Sometimes it�s all by feel at this point because you haven�t seen many of our guys compete in this kind of competition.

Then of course there�s the adjustment because the game is called differently, the rules are different. For many of our guys this was a real baptism in terms of international basketball. With that baptism they learned a lot about themselves, they learned a lot about the rules, the experience. It�s one thing to hear the rules, to play them in a scrimmage or a practice session, but to do it in a live game where points matter quite a bit, it adds a little bit of a new experience for them. I thought they responded to that challenge very well.

How do you feel about the team�s effort today? Did anyone stand out?
We felt since day one that Kemba Walker was the catalyst for our team. He�s the one that started us off, he�s a superb leader. He just gets better and better and makes everyone around him better. I thought Travis Wear and Travis Releford were sensational, as was Ryan Kelly. Ryan Kelly and Travis Wear gave us great interior scoring, added buckets and rebounds. Travis Releford did everything: rebounded, ran the court, defended, got loose balls, made shots inside and was extremely, extremely effective and efficient in running our offense.

Mason Plumlee (Christ H.S. / Arden, N.C.)
On Venezuela:
I was impressed by them, especially Greg (Echenique), I had never seen him play before. They were a lot better than I thought they would be because we handled Mexico and Canada pretty easily in our scrimmages and they�re a lot better than both those teams.

Was your plan simply to wear out Venezuela with all your running?
Yeah, coach wanted us to keep the pressure on them, ball pressure and stuff. He said that eventually they�ll get tired. We�ve got 12 guys who can all play and we use all 12 of them. Most teams don�t have that, most teams have five or eight who can all play. I think it was a good strategy.

What was the key to the game for you?
I�d say defense. It led to some easy fast break opportunities. You can get layups on the other end on two-on-ones, three-on-ones. That�s a lot easier than having to score on the half court setting all the time.

Travis Releford (Bishop Miege H.S. / Shawnee Mission, Kan.)
How challenging is it to compete against a team you know nothing about, one you�ve never seen before?
It�s very challenging because you don�t know what to expect from the other team, who�s their best player, who�s their best shooter. I think we handled it very well, coming out, defending and really getting after it.

On Venezuela jumping out in the first half to take the lead:
I kind of expected it because I�ve played overseas before. Every team we play against is always going to come out ready to compete because we�re the USA team and we�re still called the best team in the world. So every time we step out we have to be ready to play because the other teams are going to come after us.

Were you able to come back in the second quarter by upping your defensive intensity, wearing them down so to speak?
That was just a mental thing, being down and getting after it in the second quarter, just pushing it. Coach told us that if we kept pushing it eventually they were going to wear out, get tired, and that�s what we did to retake the lead.

They tried to make a comeback at the end:
Every team�s going to have that run, it�s just a matter of how a team can control it, how they can handle it. I think we handled their run really well.

Kemba Walker (Rice H.S. / New York, N.Y.)
On his opening run:
It was just there. All the shots I took were good shots and every time I have the opportunity to shoot the ball, I shoot to make it. It was falling in the first half.

Were you surprised by Venezuela?
I really didn�t know a whole lot about them, I�ve never seen any of them play besides their big man Greg (Echinique). It was kind of surprising, they came out, they played hard and gave us a challenge but we came up with the win.

To what do credit this win?
I credit our team defense. I think our coaches helped us a lot. They prepared us in practice to play defense like that and I think we did a really good job of it in the game.

What was Venezuela doing to disrupt your offense?
Their inside presence was something big in the first half, but in the second half they started making jump shots. That�s something, in the second half we focused more on their big men so they started to kick it out and make more jump shots.

Maalik Wayns (Roman Catholic H.S. / Philadelphia, Pa.)
How challenging is it to play a team you know nothing about?
It�s different. It�s really different, their press is different, they just play a different type of basketball. We�re just going to have to adjust to that through the tournament.

What was Venezuela doing to disrupt your offense?
They were being a little more physical than us and I think there were (setting) a lot of screens, there was a lot of help defense on their part so we couldn�t get really get into our flow. We weren�t making a lot of shots early, but we were making shots at the end, which is what we want.

What kind of adjustments were you making to combat that?
Keep running so we could wear them out so that by the third quarter came they�d be worn out. We just ran on them. Run, run, the whole game.