The USA experienced an unexpected defeat against Lithuania, and so from the second place in the group, they enter the quarterfinals and a duel with Italy. Before the duel with the Azures, the center of the American team Jaren Jackson announced.
As is usually the case at major competitions, Team USA has a separate training hall from the other Mundobasket participants.
Before the start of practice, Memphis center Jaren Jackson took time for the media.
The defeat against Lithuania was experienced by the USA team as a lesson and, according to the center of this team, it served to tighten the ranks for the upcoming challenges.
“The mood today is better than it was yesterday. We overslept, we are in position. We need to win three games to go and win the gold. You have to have that mentality. We have learned lessons from all the matches so far, not just yesterday. We saw the mistakes we make in the games we win. We watched the movie, closed ranks and continue on”.
Jackson looked back on the matches with Montenegro and Lithuania, where he competed with Nikola Vucevic and Jonas Valančiūnas.
“It is inconvenient to play in my position. I often have All-Star players as direct opponents, I mean Jonas Valančiūnas and Nikola Vučević. Those are always good matches”. – said Jackson.
The change from NBA to FIBA rules is a big challenge for a large number of players from the best league in the world, including for the Memphis player.
“You have to constantly be concentrated. Unlike America, here you have less personal mistakes, which you should pay attention to. The game is shorter, there are different criteria in defense, in some moments you can play harder and in others not. You should always be on your guard”.
In the continuation of the competition, he wishes to meet again with Lithuania.
“The lesson has been learned. We will play again, we have to be ready”.
Expectations before the quarterfinals…
“Elimination game, much like American football in college. If we had aggressiveness and hunger from the beginning of the season, we have to regain that”.
As he concludes, Jackson has positive impressions from Manila.
“We have no problems with traffic here, we have a police escort. We have everything we need: a good cook, good rooms, our people with us… The only problem is the time difference, so we can’t hear from people at home. But I’m enjoying Manila, I have a chance to meet a new culture, a new country…” Jackson concluded.
