Of course, it’s good for morale and it reinforces the capital of confidence to have won a third match in a row last night in Orleans against Venezuela. But the national coach, Vincent Collet, will probably not fail to refocus his troops on the upcoming deadlines, with Lithuania twice, then Japan and Australia. To maintain a healthy pressure on his group.
Satisfied with the state of mind of the Blues, and a more fluid game than last year, the coach of the France team nevertheless wants to continue his substantive work and take advantage of every moment before the World Cup to progress on the defense (and its alternation) but also on the game situations at the low post in attack.
With a hierarchy already well defined after the return to business of veterans like Nando De Colo and Nicolas Batum, and bench players who are refining their respective roles, the Blues are sailing serenely so far on the banks of the Loire…
To read >>> Rudy Gobert’s interview
“When we did the screens, there was no offensive rebound”
Vincent, you have gleaned a third victory in three games, what are your first reactions after this success? And, consequently, what are the downsides that you would like to bring to this rather convincing picture as a whole?
“There are always downsides, but that’s normal because it’s still a start of preparation with close matches. We only did five or six training sessions together, so the games also help us to progress. The shoots we do in the morning are also much more complete than usual. We don’t just shoot, but often ‘pedestrian’ to explain specific points. In this case, this morning was the [zone] 3-2 matchup. We try to enjoy every moment. But what is important is that there is a real concentration on the objectives that we set for ourselves. Tonight, we were aiming for two things: to improve the relationship with the interior. I think we have made good progress in terms of giving the ball inside but we still have a lot of work to do on the mobility around these post-up actions. That’s it, it’s still not enough to get the ball out, on what we call the “inside out”. The second thing we wanted to work on is the speed of execution. In the installation of screens, in markdowns, in the installation [des systèmes], in the raises… It was the first time since the beginning of the preparation that we managed to raise well, in particular at the start of the third quarter. We know it’s one of our usual strong points and we want to find it again. After, on the rebound, there was a bad passage in the second quarter, where they took 4 of their 9 in total. This is an obvious point of vulnerability, not only cyclical but structural. We have a lot of players who don’t have the right habits, so we insisted on that a lot on the video, with an edit we made of the match against Montenegro. Everyone has to get on with it. We saw that when we made the screens, there was no offensive rebound. »
“When you’re no longer on the ball carrier, that doesn’t mean you have to stop defending, quite the contrary! »
We felt that there was a real instruction from the staff to play inside against Venezuela, do you confirm?
” Of course. I am convinced that inside, we have enough to dominate a lot of teams. I already thought so last year, but we failed to exploit this potential. Because we did not have the necessary quality to put the ball inside. These are not obvious passes to make. This year, the two best passers returned [De Colo et Batum, ndlr] and you can see how that influences the game. And also the other players who didn’t necessarily put it on before… But it must also come from the insides who have to take good positions. [Rudy] takes better positions than last year, and as soon as [aujourd’hui], we will continue to work on this. We don’t want to put the ball inside to score every time but already, if you threaten, you will cause assists, uncontrolled or too strong assists and which we must benefit from on the outside shot. Especially since with Mous [Fall], we have a very good passer. We must improve spacing and mobility on these actions. »
We just saw a very good relationship, high post – low post, between Fall and Makoundou in the second half, what did you think of the performance of the latter who has just joined the group in Orléans? And will he still be in the squad for Lithuania on Wednesday?
” [Makoundou] will be with the team again on Wednesday, that’s for sure. We still have to spare Mathias [Lessort]. He had a hard time getting into it at first. He was on the difficult duel in addition, so he was, let’s say, looking for benchmarks [petit sourire]. It’s normal, he only arrived the day before the match. He was in the team’s tone, so that’s fine. The other players have tried to integrate it. »
On the zone, we heard you say that you wanted the outsiders to go “find work”, did that happen in this third match?
“They found a lot more [hier] night than against Montenegro. It is a defense whose principles are close to man-to-man, but the activity must be increased still further. You should not want to defend only one position, often you have to defend two. You have to change status very quickly. When you are no longer on the ball carrier, that does not mean that you have to stop defending, quite the contrary! It is already necessary to anticipate the next potential passes, trying as much as possible to hinder those which go inside. If we manage to keep our vis-à-vis on the outskirts, we will have done a large part of the job. »
“We want our players to evolve in their zone of efficiency”
Like Evan Fournier with the Knicks, Frank Ntilikina had a rather complicated season with the Mavs, how do you go about restoring his confidence offensively, knowing that his role in the NBA essentially boils down to defensive tasks?
“It’s utopian to believe that players who do certain things all year round will change their game completely once they put on the blue jersey! Sometimes they believe it, but often wrongly. They must already do very well what they know how to do. And afterwards, they will have the opportunity to do something else. (…) That’s why we take the time. It will gradually rise. It’s not just up to us to raise it, it must also raise itself. He must take advantage of his minutes on the pitch to raise his level of play. He still has time, he is like the rest of the group, he works and he is focused in training. There’s no reason it can’t come. On this match, we saw that Terry Tarpey and Yakuba Ouattara had made good entries when they had been in more difficulty against Montenegro. We must not learn lessons from each outing [en préparation], it is the general progression that matters. We want to raise each other gradually. Of course, we give priority to the leaders but we will also need the substitutes. We therefore try each time to ensure that one or two players take advantage of these matches to regain confidence, and above all that they evolve in their zone of efficiency. I am happy with the passage of Sylvain Francisco in the second half. He was more aggressive. I want him to use his speed. He can make 3-point shots but I prefer him attacking the circle because he’s the fastest player on the team. »
It is now a double confrontation against Lithuania that is on the horizon, we imagine that you had foreseen this increase in difficulty by planning the preparation program…
“Since the start of the preparation, we have seen this double test against Lithuania as an important moment for us. It will sanction the end of our first block on Friday evening. After that, we will take off for Japan for final preparation, with two interesting tests as well. The first against Japan. We saw how much we had suffered against them two years ago, and it will be the same conditions, with the jet lag, we will certainly be very tired. But we want to see how we behave under fatigue. Afterwards, we will have Australia which will be another high quality challenge. Like Lithuania. To tell the truth, I’m waiting for the game in Vilnius even more [que celui de mercredi à domicile] because I know that one will be very complicated. We feel that there is a good state of mind in the group, the players enjoy playing together, giving each other the ball. We move much better, we are more fluid. But we will have to see what happens when it gets complicated. We will have to keep this way of doing things when things get tough. From Wednesday, but especially Friday. »
Interview in Orléans
Photo credit : Lenoir/The Agency/FFBB
