Jokinen2
New member
USA head coach Don Showalter (Mid-Prairie High School, Iowa)
On the USA’s zone defense in the second quarter:
In the first quarter we played all man-to-man and I thought we did okay with it. We got into foul trouble in the first quarter, James and Johnny were both in a little foul trouble. So we went to a zone and that seemed to really throw Argentina off, it got them out of their game a little bit. They hit a few threes, but it wasn’t like they really hurt us on the outside shots. At halftime we said we were going to stay with it. We felt that that was causing them some problems. I don’t think they expected it because we hadn’t played zone hardly at all during the entire tournament. It threw them off a little bit, it took them a little while to adjust to it. They were not expecting it. That was a big key for us.
Brad Beal
On the USA’s defense:
We mixed up our defenses and used a two-three zone or man-to-man, and it worked. They started taking bad shots, and we forced turnovers. That’s what coach wanted us to do, was to outrebound them. We were more athletic, so we just had to use our athletic ability and our fundamentals, and we came out on top.
On the USA’s zone defense in the second quarter:
In the first quarter we played all man-to-man and I thought we did okay with it. We got into foul trouble in the first quarter, James and Johnny were both in a little foul trouble. So we went to a zone and that seemed to really throw Argentina off, it got them out of their game a little bit. They hit a few threes, but it wasn’t like they really hurt us on the outside shots. At halftime we said we were going to stay with it. We felt that that was causing them some problems. I don’t think they expected it because we hadn’t played zone hardly at all during the entire tournament. It threw them off a little bit, it took them a little while to adjust to it. They were not expecting it. That was a big key for us.
Brad Beal
On the USA’s defense:
We mixed up our defenses and used a two-three zone or man-to-man, and it worked. They started taking bad shots, and we forced turnovers. That’s what coach wanted us to do, was to outrebound them. We were more athletic, so we just had to use our athletic ability and our fundamentals, and we came out on top.