Interview Frédéric Fauthoux: « We found our characteristic energy again »
French National Team - After France's victory against Poland (83-76), Frédéric Fauthoux praised his players' response, two days after the defeat against Israel. The French coach also paid tribute to Guerschon Yabusele, who delivered a historic performance at EuroBasket.
Photo Credit : Julie Dumélié
After France’s victory against Poland (83-76), Frédéric Fauthoux praised his players’ response, two days after the defeat against Israel. The French coach also paid tribute to Guerschon Yabusele, who delivered a historic performance at EuroBasket.
You beat Poland this Tuesday. Is that a big satisfaction?
« We had a real disappointment on Sunday because we didn’t play with our characteristic energy. Tonight, we found that again. It’s really satisfying because it shows the players have pride. I never doubted it, but we needed to show it in a context that was against us. You don’t fully control your destiny. If you win, you know the situation. But if Israel wins, you’ll face the third place team. »
How do you interpret the standings and your current position?
« We don’t control our destiny. It depends on what we want to determine. We remember what we said at the start of preparation. We also came to see things, to show things. Qualification is secured, that’s a first major point. We’re in the top three. And we’ll see what lies ahead. Do we have the ambition to really choose our opponent? I don’t think so. Today, we did what we had to do. I think that’s most important. »
Guerschon Yabusele achieved the third highest offensive performance since 1995. One shot away from surpassing Tony Parker and Yann Bonato. What does this mean to you tonight, but also in terms of French national team history?
« It’s always pleasant to see a player perform like this. We know Guerschon is more than important, our leader, let’s be honest, given his experience. He lived up to this status in the best possible way. We needed a player like Guerschon to win here. And seeing him enter the history books, it’s very appreciable that he did it with this team and with such a great spirit. »
He had trouble smiling in the first three games. Was he frustrated these past days? Did he want to show a better side?
« Yes, frustrated. We talked… But careful, it’s not necessarily because we talk that we become good, but I think that to reach this level, these are big competitors and, at some point, they can’t stay like that because it’s obviously frustration. Also, I think having the captain’s role, we talked about it a bit, it can sometimes… I don’t want to say weigh down, but we always pay a bit more attention to others, try to work more collectively, attitude, and maybe he locked himself too much into that and forgot he needed to be more of a player, so to speak. Well, maybe you should ask him more questions. But what’s certain is that he had a huge performance. »
We saw Élie Okobo very clean today, almost like a point guard. Was it your intention to move him to position 1?
« Yes, but anyway, it’s been planned since Matthew’s injury. We have two true point guards, Sylvain and Théo. And Élie, since we’ll say he’s a shooting guard, at least today pure shooting guard. So yes, it was one of the main options to put him in that position, to also, as you saw, put some height alongside to be able to defend harder, which is the team’s strength. But it’s true that Élie also had a very good game. Let’s not beat around the bush: the individual scoring and passing performances are clear to see. Congratulations to them.
Never forget the work of others. I could say that today, a player like Tim (Luwawu-Cabarrot) had a very important role in the second half, where he shut down Mateusz Ponitka, stole balls, grabbed offensive rebounds. Bilal’s (Coulibaly) sacrifice, making that last foul without calculating whether he should stay on the court or not… And that’s not always seen. But as a coach, it’s extremely appreciable because we feel we have guys who sacrifice themselves for the team.
And I know scoring can rotate, proof is. Today, Guerschon scores 36 points. Three days ago, it was Sylvain with 32. I hope it will be someone else on Thursday. That would mean we’re dangerous from everywhere. »
Alexandre Sarr was ruled out before the match. How will you manage with only three big men for the rest of the Euro?
« So you’re not surprised, Guerschon didn’t know (in the post-game press conference), because I decided to announce it to the group to avoid asking ourselves thousands of questions before the game. We already ask ourselves plenty… Then, we’ll control what we can control and adapt. I won’t make hasty plans but, when you look at other nations, we, France, can be lucky to rely on almost huge players, if we can say so, with very particular characteristics that other nations don’t have. That’s why I say that, sometimes, we have less margin, but when you look at all other nations, they’re not better off than us, let’s say. Almost none. So we’ll almost start on equal footing, I’ll tell you, in this sector. But yes, we’ll adapt. And like tonight, we’ll set up things to disrupt opponents. »
Three big men didn’t prevent you from grabbing more than 20 offensive rebounds?
« Yes, because we have a stake in this. We have perimeter players who are 2.07m, 2.03m, which others don’t really have either, and it’s our strength to go get second chances. Right now, we’re missing quite a bit, so we have the opportunity to take more too. Maybe another game, we’ll take fewer offensive rebounds because we’ll score more baskets. In any case, we have the qualities to do it and we’re not worried about it. »
After this game, what areas for improvement do you still identify in the French team’s game?
« First, maintain what we offer in terms of intensity. I think today, except for five minutes in the first half where we really let go mentally a bit, we need to stay consistent there. And anyway, a team always progresses, no matter what, because it’s always new. There are always plenty of areas where we can improve. I can’t cite one in particular. »
As expected, there were changes in rotation management. Guerschon barely came out (36 minutes), Élie didn’t come out in the second half. Other players didn’t get in. Is this the reality of the match, or the trend for the rest of the competition?
« Yes, it’s very possible, because, as I often say, we also have the chance to have 12 guys who play either in the NBA or in EuroLeague in this team. So these are players who can come in at any time. And it’s true that if we want to last in the competition, it might change a bit on Thursday. But for that, everyone needs to be at top level. »
Gabriel Pantel-Jouve est le fondateur et rédacteur en chef de BeBasket, qu’il anime depuis 2010 (sous le nom de Catch & Shoot). Passé par l’Ecole Publique de Journaliste de Tours, puis deux universités en Amérique du Nord, il a pu développer son expertise sur le basket français, de la Ligue Nationale aux divisions amateurs, durant ces 20 dernières années. En parallèle, il est aussi engagé dans le développement de clubs du côté de Montpellier.
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