COLORADO SPRINGS (FIBA U17 World Championship) - How long does it take to put together a title-winning team? Don Showalter hopes just a little over two weeks because that's all the time the USA head coach has from the start of USA training camp to the start of the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship.

Showalter will hold a three-day mini training camp from Wednesday to Friday of this week (24-26 July) after which he will cut the roster down to 16 players - from the 34 taking part in the tryouts. The final 12-man roster for the Americans will be named before 1 August.

The USA, the two-time defending champions at the FIBA U17 World Championship, will take on Greece, Angola and Philippines in Group A of the tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) next month (8-16 August).

Showalter took time to talk to FIBA.com about his expectations for the upcoming training camp, how he will decide which players he will take to Dubai, and how the USA's depth was key to going undefeated at the 2010 and 2012 editions of the championship.

FIBA: Coach, the USA training camp starts on 24 July, what are your expectations of the tryouts?
Showalter: The kids are really excited about the training camp. I know they have been working really, really hard. And I know that not making the U16 (FIBA Americas) team last summer motivated a lot of those players to increase their game just to get better in hopes of making U17 team.

FIBA: What are some of the traits you and the coaching staff will be looking for in selecting the 12-man roster for the World Championship?
Showalter: We look for three things. We have to play great defense - great on-ball defense, great pressure defense. We're a team that extends our defense and makes the team use the 24-second shot clock. So defense will be our number one priority.

Who can guard the ball, who can guard the basket? Secondly, we have to have kids who will make the extra pass and not be the one who shoots the ball. We're looking for unselfish players, great teammates.

And thirdly, knock down open shots. The guys need to hit the shots when they have them. Those are the three things we're looking for when camp opens up. I expect we'll have some new players who did not make the team last year.

FIBA: The training camp starts on 24 July and the tournament starts on 8 August. That is not a lot of time. How do you deal with the lack of time?
Showalter: Most of the teams in Europe and Australia have been together longer. That concerns us. We will have two practices a day (after the tryouts) to try to put in our system. The nice thing is that we did have a training camp in October for three days to bring in all the kids. That helped us at least to have a couple of days with them. But we really have to work hard to develop a team in that short amount of time. People say we have a lot of talent - yes we do. But we have a shorter period of time to put a team together than most of the other countries, which kind of puts us behind the eight ball a little bit when it comes to playing with each other and knowing each other's nuances - passing and catching.

FIBA: The United States have not lost a game in the previous two FIBA U17 World Championships. Talk about the level of competition in this tournament.
Showalter: I think the competition every year has gotten a little better for us. Teams are really preparing to beat us as opposed to beating each other. They know that they have to prepare to beat us if they want to have any chance to win the gold medal. I think they have upped their level of practices. Their competition has gotten better and they have a tougher time of picking their players as well in order to give up great competition. We don't overlook anybody. If you look at our top five players and the top five players of some of these other teams, it would be really close if we couldn't sub. We really depend on our guys to come off the bench to give us our extra momentum off the bench. We need it in games.

FIBA: What does the team need to do to win a third straight world championship?
Showalter: We have to play great defense. That will be our emphasis from day one. We have to guard the ball, we have to communicate on the screens. Defense will be the top priority. And then to get players to mold together and get to understand each other and how to play together. If we can do that, I think we'll be pretty good.

FIBA