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Team in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

The 2003 USA Basketball men's and women’s Pan American Games teams arrived in Santo Domingo on Wednesday to a welcome reception from the host country. The teams spent three hours at the airport to register as official members of the Pan American Games, and afterwards they moved into three-bedroom apartments at the Athlete Village, which is home to all the athletes participating in the games.

Each sport representing the USA got the opportunity to nominate a team member to carry the United States flag at the opening ceremonies Aug. 1. The USA women nominated tri-captain, Jamie Carey (Texas / Thornton, Colo.), and tri-captain Jenni Benningfield (Vanderbilt / Louisville, Ky.) presented her story to the USOC on behalf of Carey. Carey was nominated by her team for overcoming many personal obstacles in life after being forced to retire from basketball and then her triumph return two years later. According to Benningfield, “Jamie is a true inspiration on and off the court for all of the players on our team. She is our motivator, leader, captain, leading scoring, and friend.”

Due to the lack of basketball gyms available in Santo Domingo, the teams are limited on practice times. The women's team practiced for an hour and a half on Thursday morning ans went again in the evening, while the men scrimmaged against Canada Thursday evening. Everyone on both teams is healthy and able to go.

There are 653 USA athletes competing in the 2003 Pan American Games. 106 of them are former Olympians, 36 of them won a medal at the Olympics, 9 received individual medals and one team, USA Softball, are defending gold medallists.

Quotes by USA Pan Am and University of Virginia head coach, Debbie Ryan:

On what she knows about the other teams and how she feels to face Cuba for the fourth time in two weeks: “Well, first of all, I have no basis to make comments on the other teams because I’ve only seen one team (Cuba) in the tournament play, so I can’t really say. I just know that the Cubans are very tough, very athletic, very big, and they gave us three very tough games down there in Cuba, so I obviously think they’re good. I do know that Brazil has some former WNBA players and some players that have played in several Olympics, so it’s going to be very difficult to beat them, too.”

On having five days to practice and what the team has improved on in those days: “I think that we obviously are better offensively at this point. It has taken us a while to get time to work on our offense and thankfully we finally got some time to do that. It’s very hard to tell until you get on the floor in the games because the other teams do have a lot of talent, they are a lot more seasoned than we are, and most of the other teams have been together for a long time. Hopefully we will do a lot better job here than we did in Cuba.”

On what is has been like mentally and physically practicing and preparing in such tough conditions: “I think that the mentality is fine. I don’t think they the girls have reacted or complained about anything. It’s very hot here and hard to practice and there’s no way to stay in the gym that long because it’s just blistering hot. We are trying to save or energy and we will go short and sweet in the morning and then we’ll play games in the evening.”

On what a typical day is like off the court and in the Athlete Village: “A typical day here is we get up in the morning and eat breakfast together in the Village with all the other athletes and then we practice. Afterwards we come home and there is a little time to rest. This evening we are playing an exhibition game against Canada. We are about an hour away from all our venues, so we have a lot of travel time. We will go and play the game and hopefully get back in time to eat some dinner tonight. If not, we will stop at what has become our favorite restaurant while in Santo Domingo, McDonald’s (smiles).

“Other than that, last night we had a team meeting and there are various things for the athletes to do. They can visit with our athletes, get on the Internet and computers, there are phone banks set up to communicate back home, so there is a lot of different things that we can do.”

Quotes from Men’s Team after Thursday’s practice and scrimmage against Canada

Head Coach Tom Izzo (Michigan State University) on the scrimmage Thursday afternoon against Canada: “I thought today was big for us. It gave us a chance to play against someone else and it gave us a different look. We learned a lot. We’ve got a ways to go, but there were some bright spots too.”

On Team USA’s first opponent, Argentina (Saturday, Aug. 2, 7 p.m. ET): “It was a very tough draw. Argentina is the best team I’ve seen as far as setting picks is concerned. All these teams are good at setting picks and getting shots. They’re all good offensively.”

Brandon Mouton (University of Texas) on the scrimmage against Canada: “I thought the team executed decently, but we kept turning the ball over. I try to provide leadership and help us keep our poise, but all of us have to come together. Today helped because we were playing a fresh team. It showed us what we have to work on.”

On the Athletes Village: “It’s lots of fun to see teams from all over the USA. You realize that we’re all actually part of one big team and we all want to bring home gold for our country and for ourselves.”

Arthur Johnson (University of Missouri) on being in the Dominican Republic: “So far it’s been a great experience. The people have been extremely nice. I’ve never done anything like this, and it helps you appreciate what you take for granted at home. To see where people live, how people get around, there’s a big difference. The Dominican Republic is a beautiful place.”

Rickey Paulding (University of Missouri) on being in the Dominican Republic: “It’s been good. The conditions are a lot better than we expected. It feels good to be out here wearing the red, white and blue. It’s different from when we were in Orlando, because we were playing each other. It will be a challenge, adjusting to the international rules. We’re not on our home court, so we have to be ready to play hard every game.”