ADDITIONAL QUOTES >> USA 131, U.S. Virgin Islands 63

June 26, 2010 - San Antonio, Texas

Jeff Capel, 2010 USA U18 National Team head coach
(University of Oklahoma)
Is it difficult to continue to keep the team focused against a team that isn't as much of a match-up for you as other teams might be?
It's tough to stay focused, especially with young guys, when you have a lead like we did. They scored eight points in the first quarter and then came back and scored 20 in the second. It's difficult to play with that kind of lead, but especially with young guys. They have a tendency to let up, take their foot off the gas. I thought we did a little bit better of a job in the third quarter. I thought our zone in the fourth quarter was really, really good.

What did you like about what the USA team did tonight?
I saw some good things. I thought Jereme Richmond played a really, really good overall game. Quincy Miller, with 15 points and 17 rebounds, was good. It was good to see Trevor Cooney hit some shots. Austin (Rivers) obviously can score the basketball. He may be our best scorer. LeBryan Nash got into it, so it was good to see a lot of guys have some success.

Tomorrow you face Mexico:
Yeah, we got to see them earlier today. It's a team similar to the Virgin Islands. It's a team that we'll be more talented and bigger than, but one of the things that we want to do is set a standard for how we play. We want that standard to be very, very high. Then we want to go out there and live up to that standard every time we step out there on the floor.

On what the team is getting out of this experience:
This helps them for the rest of their careers because it sets a standard. It sets a standard of how to be a champion, how to be a really good team. And hopefully, all the things we've taught them here, how we've pushed, them will help carry them for the rest of their careers.

Trevor Cooney
(Sanford H.S. / Wilmington, Del.)
On the USA's 3-point scoring:
We were just getting open looks and when we get open looks, we're expected to knock them down. We knocked them down today.

Have you ever played a game where 11 players scored in the first 11 minutes of the game?
No. Never.

All five starters scored within the first two minutes of the game and 10 guys scored by halftime. What does that say about this team?
That we worked really hard the last two weeks and it came together like this. This is what we want to play like and this is what we want to do.

How hard is it to stay focused after grabbing a big lead early in a game?
I think that with any other team it would be pretty hard. But with this team and the mantra about just staying on top of it and making a statement, it's not very hard for us.

Josh Hairston
(Montrose Christian School, Md. / Fredericksburg, Va.)
Do you have a nickname?
I just got one from Kyrie (Irving). He calls me "Jiggy" when we are on the floor. If you pay attention tomorrow you will hear him call me Jiggy, as of right now that is the only one I have.

How was the feel of tonight's game, the refs were calling it really tight. What did you think?
One thing playing with teams like the U.S., you have to be able to go outside yourself and not have to play the position you normally play. All of us on our high school teams were big time scorers, and that is one thing I kind of had to adjust to. I'm used to coming down the floor and touching the ball at least every play, but I don't have to do that here. I'm just expected to play defense, rebound, you touch the ball score it. There are times when the game can get a little hectic and you can get down on yourself, and one thing you need to do is keep your head up with a team like this. You're playing with a USA jersey on. That's big time! I was sitting on the bench and thinking about it, and I looked down and saw everybody, and thought this is a big time thing. And looking at the score board, we just beat a team by 68 points…we are pretty good. You just gotta go outside yourself and know it's bigger than the last name on the back of the jersey. It's for all the people and this great country; that's what we are out there playing for.

On coach Jeff Capel's style:
Coach Capel is one of the biggest defensive coaches I have ever been around. He stresses defending the 3-point ball. We had a couple of let downs today but we will get back at it tomorrow. It's fun playing defense. When you play good defense you get out on offense and you're able and that's what everybody likes to do…that's one thing we try to do. Coach Capel comes out and tells us to set the tone on defense. When we set the tone on defense it's easy points on offense.

Quincy Miller
(Quality Education Academy / Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Talking about the mindset it takes to get so many boards when playing an outside position:
I just go in as aggressive as them, I think about getting the rebound first.

On his record-breaking rebounding performance:
I was just aggressive going after every rebound. That's crazy, I never even had a record as important as this one.

Is your role to focus on rebounding, or was it just your night?
Both. It's part of my role, but it was also my night, getting a lot of rebounds like that.

Pat Young
(Providence School / Jacksonville, Fla.)
On the USA's teamwork:
Right from the start we were all really excited in the locker room about this game. We came out there and we just knew that our teamwork is unstoppable. When we're playing together and everything's flowing … we thought we were the real U.S. team. The real USA Olympic Team, just dunking everything, communicating, giving high fives. Everybody was involved. Everybody scored. When Amir (Williams) scored, you saw that everyone went crazy on the bench. When Trevor (Cooney) gave his little pass and dunked on the guy, we all went crazy. It was a real good game and a real good feeling out there today.

All five starters scored within the first two minutes of the game and 10 guys scored by halftime. What does that say about how you work the ball around?
That means that we have a lot of weapons. Teams are going to have to pick their poison, because no matter what we're going to have somebody out there who's going to be able to score. They're not going to be able to stop everybody out there.

Do you feel that your hard work over the last two weeks is coming together now that you're starting to play the tournament?
Beating a team by 70 points? Yeah, definitely. They pushed us so hard in practice. I think every game should be close to this. Except maybe Canada, Brazil, those guys are pretty tough.