Additional Quotes >> USA 78, Australia 77

July 10, 2011 • Riga, Latvia

Paul Hewitt,USA Head Coach
Your comments about the game.
It’s always good to play against people you’ve known for a while and watched them grow as coach. I’ve known him (Australia’s coach Damien Cotter) for a few years now and he’s done a great job with the team; he’s had some injuries and he kept them together and they competed.

They completely and totally out toughed us in the first half and our halftime was all about just matching their effort level, which is something you don’t want to do as a coach but speaks how good of a job Damien  has done… I though in the first half our guys didn’t match their physical toughness, then we did and we were very fortunate to get a one point win.

What did you think of the tournament?
It’s a great tournament and this is my third time being involved with USA Basketball. Coaches and players who don’t take part are really missing out if you love the game. It’s a great tournament, I think all the teams represented themselves very, very well and the teams playing tonight in the championship deserve to be there, they did what they had to do.

In terms of looking for energy guys you ended up using Meyers Leonard a lot today down the stretch, can you sum up the way he closed the tournament?
Yeah his last three games, you and I spoke, but I think he has tremendous upside. In these last three games he played very, very well. He’s a young kid and because he’s 7-1 I think sometimes we look at big kids, tall kids, and think they’re real mature. Take it from a tall guy growing up, I was as goofy as they come. He’s going to be a tremendous player; he’s going to be a great player and I think again the experience these guys got and that they’re going to take back to their campus is going to make them better players in the long run. But like I said, he played three nice ball games here down the stretch.

After the disappointment of the Russia game, when you met with the team what did you say to them about closing out the tournament?
Well these guys have some pride, there’s not much you have to say, they underastand. First off all they have individual pride and have families they represent, and they have USA on their chests so they're going to come out and play very hard.

Keith Appling
Talk about the USA effort today and the spark you provided:
It was a hard fought game all the way and when my name was called I just wanted to try to go out there and try and help my team get on top.

You made a couple baskets early in the fourth quarter to give the U.S. the lead, what were you seeing?
When I went out there I was going out there trying to pass first, but I saw they defense was kind of laying off me so I was aggressive and tried to score and it worked out well.

What’s it mean for the team to finish up with the two wins after the disappointing loss to Russia.
It means a lot.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to win the gold medal  but we were able to go on and win our last two games.

Tim Hardaway
Your comments on today’s game.
I think we played very well as a team and showed great heart out there today and not giving up on the offensive rebounding Australia did because they did a great job with that in the first half and we made sure we boxed them out in the second half and made sure we took care of that. I think we just played tough out there today.

Talk about what happened on that last defensive stand where you were on their shooter Hugh Greenwood?
Coach Hewitt and the coaching staff had total confidence in me to stay on their best scorers throughout this whole tournament, so I knew I was going to have to get one defensive stop and it was a do or die. He (Australia’s Hugh Greenwood) had 26 points and that’s their main guy so it’s either do die. I just made sure I stayed in front of him, contained him. They had four seconds left so I knew if I stayed in front of him for three more seconds he would have to put up a shot over me, so I just stayed in front of him and just contested the shot.

What was the mood like in the locker room afterwards?
We’re all happy that we had this opportunity and the experience to come out here and see how everybody else plays, how different countries go out there and play hard against us. It’s just a great opportunity in itself to come out here. I think that’s what we’re all trying to soak up, think about, we’re going to miss it when we go back to the states.

What will you personally take back to your college from this experience?
Getting over flare screens (laughing along with Coach Hewitt)…I’m going to try and work on that when I get back. Over here in Europe they do a great job of using ball screens and setting their man up, so just watching that and defending that will help me in the long run.

I noticed yesterday you got frustrated with yourself for missing open jump shots, what was the problem and what was the difference today?
I think it was just…I have no idea. I think it was just going out there and just trying to shoot the ball and not think about it, just go out there and shoot, stop aiming for the basket and just try and play in the flow of the game, let the game come to me. That’s what my teammates were telling me after the game yesterday, ‘just let the shot come to me and don’t try and find shots and just play in the flow of the offense.

You had to play against American teams, European teams and Asian teams, do you noticed a difference in the style of play and have to adjust to it.
It’s a different style of play over here, but basketball is basketball and you just have to go out there and give it your all, give it 110 percent when you step on that floor. Over here it is really different…but as coach said, they play just as good as anyone else. You just have to go out there and just play.

Jeremy Lamb
Talk about your play at the end of the game that proved to be the game winning points
I shot the floater and thought it would be good but I missed it and I luckily was able to get the tip in.

What’s it mean for the team to finish up with the two wins after the disappointing loss to Russia.
It feels good, we didn’t want go back on a sour note. Even though we didn’t win the gold medal like we wanted to we still finished off strong, so it’s a good feeling.

How about for you, were you happy with how you played in the championship.
I’m happy but I wish I could have shot better from long range, been a little more consistent, but I’m happy with how I played.

Meyers Leonard
How does it feel to finish up with two wins?
It feels really great. Every time I get with any team the one thing I want them to know is that  that I’m always going to go out there and compete and give it my all and I know that I did that.  It nice to get these wins under my belt and go out of here and take a long plane flight feeling good, feeling good about my team. I love all these guys.

Talk about the play in the fourth quarter where you drew the intentional foul; you missed the two free throws  but came back to hit a big jumper.
I was really surprised I missed the free throws, I was really mad at myself. But then I came back, that’s what players do I guess. I’m not afraid to take the shot, Doug (McDermott) made a good pass and I knocked it down.

Patric Young
Talk about how it feels to end up with these two wins.
It’s bitter sweet because we’re leaving without the gold medal but we’re happy that we came out victorious as a team. It‘s been a long battle for us to be here since June 17 and we’ve gone through so many things and we’re just really happy that we were able to come through on a positive note. Of course we wanted to win the gold medal, we’re just happy that we were able to do the things we accomplished and learn the lessons we learned from this.

Does it mean any more to be in a close game like this and win it?
Yeah, yeah, it could not have been better because if we would have played them and it would have been a blow out game it would have been like ‘ah whatever.’  But that we had to actually fight and battle and play as a team that game, and actually do all the right things and come together it made that win really nice.