Team USA suffered a shock defeat to the Australian national side on Saturday, 98-94, marking the Boomer's first ever win against the Americans.
Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich was understandably not in a jovial mood following the loss, but the 70-year-old decided to focus on the positive aspect of this defeat, saying that this should serve as an important learning experience for his young squad. Following the defeat, the five-time NBA champion coach spoke to the media in a post-game press conference, as he discussed the unexpected result of this exhibition match.
“You can learn as much or more from losing as winning,” Popovich said. “We’re all used to winning and losing. USA has been a little bit different over the last 12 years, used to winning, so hopefully, we can get back on that track….
“The Aussies gave us a great lesson as far as where we want to be and how you have to play in this kind of competition, so we’re getting used to that and hopefully learning.”
Popovich raises an excellent point here by pretty much saying that this was a necessary defeat for a Team USA squad that has gotten so used to a culture of winning. However, despite his rather unemotional post-game reaction here, we can all be sure that coach Pop will be grilling his boys after this stunning loss.
The San Antonio Spurs shot-caller went on to discuss the specific areas of the game wherein he thinks his team should improve on.
“That’s got to be our calling card. We scored 94 and that’s good enough, but we didn’t hold them the way we needed to defensively,” Gregg Popovich said. “To us, it’s obvious that that’s what we have to be. We have to be a good defensive and rebounding team. We did that [in a 15-point win over this same Australian team two days before], but we didn’t do it today.”
Team USA will now be heading to China to participate in the upcoming FIBA World Cup tournament which kicks off on August 31.