Additional Quotes >> USA 102, Hungary 53 

Aug. 14, 2011 • Shenzhen, China

Matt Painter, USA head coach
On tonight’s game:
Our guys did a good job of coming out and being focused and ready to play. I thought that was the best we’ve played so far, counting all the practices, exhibition game and both games here. I’m proud of our guys to be ready to play. They really followed the scouting report. This was the first time we’ve been able to watch some film and be able to see our opponent and then be able to carry out some things from the film room to the court.

On John Jenkins and the USA’s overall 3-point shooting:
John’s one of those guys, when his feet are set and he has his rhythm, you’re shocked when he misses. For him to step up tonight and break the record, when he actually hit eight the other night in our exhibition game, he’s the kind of guy who can continue to do this and maybe break his own record as we progress through the tournament.  We have to do a good job and really be conscious of where he is out on the court at all times and get him as many open looks as possible.

Were you working on anything in particular after the team grabbed a large lead?
When you get up that much, you want to continue to play the game the right way. Make the extra pass. Communicate on defense. You need to just do a lot of the little things. I thought our guys, for the most part, did that. In the fourth quarter we got a little sloppy. They were able to score more points than we would like. But, for the most part, I thought our guys were hooked up and ready to go.

JaMychal Green (University of Alabama)
On tonight’s game:
We got better defensively as a team. We played better as a team and did everything coach wanted us to do. We’re all getting better chemistry with one another and we need that to keep going.

On the USA’s defense:
Coach just talked about pressure from every position. Around the court we kept pressuring everywhere. We just got them out of their rhythm and got them uncomfortable so they couldn’t run their offense.

Do you think you put together a good 40 minutes of basketball?
Yeah, I believe we did. I think we played a hard 40-minute game.

Your offense seemed to be clicking. Was that due to the defensive pressure?
Yeah. When we’re getting turnovers and getting into transition, it helps our offense get going.

Scoop Jardine (Syracuse University)
On tonight’s game:
Everyone can play well. We have to keep playing defense how we were. If everybody stays in tune, like that … it’s not about them, it’s just about us playing better every game and we were better today than we were yesterday.

On the USA’s 3-point shooting:
It’s great. John (Jenkins) had a great shooting night. We all know to find our shooters. Ashton (Gibbs) can shoot the ball as well, me, we have some guys. We don’t have a superstar type of guy, we just have a lot of guys who can play a lot of different positions. We’re all interchangeable. The thing about it is we are all unselfish. We make a great team.

Do you work on different things after taking such a huge lead?
Our will, our defense. We want to get better every time. We want to be almost perfect. That’s what coach preaches. I know that sounds crazy, but we try to be perfect. We only can beat ourselves. We’re going to come up against some good teams, but it’s all about us and how we approach game. We know we’re going to get everybody’s best shot. So we just have to do the right things, everything coach wants us to do, and try to be better on defense at all times.

On the team’s chemistry:
I think we click on offense. They’re not going to do too much about us on offense, because we can do some great things. It’s about us on the defensive end. That’s what coach keeps preaching. If we continue to impose our will on the defensive end, we should be in great shape.

Off the court, what are you doing in the village?
Right now, we’re just interacting with everybody, trading pins and everything. We’re just getting the experience inside the village. I’ve met so many people, talking to people, trying to learn their language, just interacting, putting yourself in their shoes. We’re out of the country. We might as well experience a great thing like this. After tomorrow I think we’ll get to go out and get to enjoy the city. That should be good.

John Jenkins (Vanderbilt University)
On his 3-point shooting:
My teammates found me early in transition. I got a couple to go in and got my confidence going. From then on I just felt good with all my shots going in.

On breaking the USA’s World University Games single-game 3-point record with six threes:
That’s humungous, because I’ve kind of been going through a hard time this week. My grandfather just passed away. This whole thing has been kind of delirious for me. I don’t know what’s going on, I’m just playing games. It’s been hard for me because my family’s back at home. Just to hear that definitely means I’m doing something right out here and I feel blessed.

Are you playing for your grandfather?
For sure. Every moment of the game, I’m playing for him.

How do you stay focused in a game like that after taking such a huge lead?
We just don’t want to let teams get their heads back up. We want to keep hitting teams and hopefully they won’t come back up. When they get their heads back up, they get more confidence and that’s when we start playing bad. We need to just keep playing consistently.

On the USA team’s strong 3-point shooting:
I don’t know. It’s hard for teams to play against us when we have so many weapons. We just hope to continue this tomorrow and the rest of the week the best we can.

Ray McCallum (University of Detroit Mercy)
On today’s game:
I thought yesterday we came out to a slow start. Today, we came out focused and ready to play. We brought it from the tip and started off well. I think the score was like 15-6 and then from there we just took over and blew it out of the water.

What was the difference in your defense today?
We watched film this morning and really got a good feel for this team and what they’re capable of doing. We got really focused and really concentrated on defense more than we did yesterday. We had a lot of respect for this team, they lost a close one yesterday, so we just came out prepared and it showed tonight.

On the USA’s 3-point shooting:
Our team is full of great shooters. Everyone on this team can shoot, basically from every position, all 12 guys. Tonight, like I said, we were just focused. Guys got into open spots, guards found the right guy, the bigs found the guards when they were open and we just got a lot of open shots and we made them. We had a lot of open shots. We’ve shot a lot of shots in the last couple of weeks and it showed tonight how much everyone on the team’s been shooting and how good of a job everyone did to get open to get those open shots.

Any worries about relaxing once you have a large lead?
No. Not at all. We’re trying to come out here, play together as a team and try to get better. Everyone on this team is capable of scoring and you saw that tonight. Everyone scored and everyone played well. We want to keep scoring, keep pushing the tempo and score as much as we can. A win is a win, we’ll take it.