We started three guys who haven't played a minute of Division I basketball in this type of environment, and I thought they showed a lot of poise right from the beginning. I thought we competed on every possession right to the end of the game, which was what we had hoped we would do.

That was the first time we got a game with Mexico in a pro-American environment, ... Everyone was excited about that. Playing in the cold weather put a little more gamesmanship which was good since they do the same thing to us when we go down there. We got a great result which catapulted us to the World Cup.

Luckily, the weather's not too good with the snow. So it's a good environment for basketball.

I've said this many, many times: I don't need to be validated, not in basketball, ... I've won three championships. I was on the all-defensive team (nine times).

Sometimes scoring can be a bad indicator with the way you are playing. In the game of basketball, teams make runs and you hit shots in bunches. Though we got down early, in our system we were executing it pretty well. We were just hoping they weren't going to be keep hitting the shots they were.

Coming into that environment, it has not been a difficult transition.