By Aris Barkas / barkas@eurohoops.net
PARIS, France – Being drowned in whistles by the local audience in Lille after the delusional performance against Germany to conclude Group B, France bounced back with a proud win over Canada.
By beating Jordi Fernandez’s national team, the French side has now reached the Olympic Games Semi-Finals in back-to-back fashion after finishing second in Tokyo, claiming silver against USA Basketball.
In order to beat Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his teammates, Vincent Collet decided to make some adjustments to his game plan, benching both Rudy Gobert and Even Fournier. And his strategy ended up being effective.
Talking to L’Équipe in the aftermath of the Quarter-Finals, the French national team’s head coach commented on his pre-game speech. “I didn’t even talk about basketball. I went back to my opening speech at the training camp. I reminded the players what the opportunity to play in the Olympic Games at home meant to a career and a life. We couldn’t let this moment pass us by”, he first said.
“We were capable of getting there even though we had missed out on a lot of things up until then. We lost matches, we fell short of expectations, but despite everything, we were ready for the Quarter-Finals. I told them that everything we had been through together over the past month should help us get over this obstacle. The path was there”, Vincent Collet followed.
Commenting on his changes from previous games, the French head coach kept it simple. “I hadn’t anticipated that Isaia [Cordinier] would shoot 4/4 from the three-point range. We put him in the starting five to raise our defensive level, like at the start of preparation. That seemed very important to me”, he underlined about the performance brought by Virtus Bologna’s small forward.
“We decided to put Guerschon [Yabusele] in place of Rudy [Gobert] before he hurt his finger”, he followed. “The idea was for Victor [Wembanyama] to start the game as center, especially since Canada left [Dillon] Brooks on him. That gave Guerschon [Yabusele] more space too”, Vincent Collet added.
Talking about players left out of the starting five, he also came back to the controversy with Evan Fournier. “He was decisive and, above all, he got in tune with the defensive aspect. For me, that’s what’s important. There was such desire, such guts… As for what he said, I haven’t read it”, he commented.
“It was reported to me. When I was asked the question at Club France, I said it was “inappropriate and unacceptable”. I don’t read newspapers or social networks. But I still have a few friends who tell me that I’m regularly cut up in the media”, the French national team’s head coach also said.
France is now called up to the challenge against the German national team, which came back from -14 to beat Greece in the Quarter-Finals of the Olympic Games. Franz Wagner and Dennis Schroder already took care of business against the hosts, winning a few days ago.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA Basketball
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