He was the big favorite announced for the position: Freddy Fauthoux is indeed the new boss of the Blues. The 51-year-old technician arrives on the bench of the French team for four years and with an XXL challenge facing him.
The Tricolores indeed looked the armada of Team USA in the eyes in the final of the Olympic Games a few weeks ago and remain on a virtuous fifteen years with Vincent Collet at their head. Now comes another regular at major events, as a player then as a coach. And who embodies a form of natural continuity to succeed the new special advisor to the national technical directorate.
From chicks to a European final in around ten years
Between the breeders Collet and Fauthoux, there is in fact a sort of connection. Like the now ex-French coach, Frédéric (his full first name) Fauthoux is a man of the inner circle, nourished by LNB basketball, which he has never left. Vincent Collet, the adopted Sarthois, player then coach of Le Mans, thus gives way to “Petitou”, legend of Elan Béarnais Pau-Orthez before becoming one of the most sought-after technicians in the French championship in recent years.
However, it was almost by chance that he got into coaching. Freddy Fauthoux thus became a coach from the bottom of the ladder, when his son's chick team needed a coach at the Pau-Nord-Est club, the nursery of Elan Béarnais. “ The trigger, I had it with the kids » he said at The Team last April. “ I didn't think it would take me this far. »
Here, it was then “only” at the head of the JL Bourg-en-Bresse club, author of the best season in its history last season with a first qualification in the semi-final of the championship and a defeat in the final of the Eurocup (beaten by Paris Basket). For his second season in Ain, Freddy Fauthoux had cemented his place among the best French coaches of the moment. He had made his team the third attack in the championship last season, by practicing movement basketball where the search for the best possible shot made the “Game” dangerous with outside shooting (third average of successful winners per match, best percentage) all by being one of the most aggressive (first in the number of free throws attempted per game).
Victory in blood
“ Of course, we must keep what made the French teams successful this summer, among young people and seniors, and continue to cultivate this strong defensive identity.detailed the new coach of the Blues during his induction on Wednesday. However, yes, I have ideas. I dream of total basketball where we defend hard, but where we can also score a lot of points. Teams that win recent international competitions often play at 85-90 points per game, while being in the top two or three defenses. I don't know if we will succeed but in France, we have exceptional players, today and for the future. »
Of the caliber of those who achieve milestones and lift trophies? “ I won a lot when I played, I would also like to do it when I coach » proclaimed Freddy Fauthoux after re-signing for three seasons with Bourg-en-Bresse in April. Seven French championship titles as a player, then two more as “associate coach” of TJ Parker at ASVEL for two years (2021, 2022) form some habits at the end of the season.
It is this winning profile that the French Federation sought to begin the new cycle of the national team. After eight podiums in fourteen competitions over the last fifteen summers, the emergence of Victor Wembanyama should allow the Blues to do better than the “only” Euro 2013 title. This is good, Freddy Fauthoux likes to trust his young players, particularly on the inside, he who was able to boost the careers of future internationals like Louis Labeyrie or Vincent Poirier at Levallois, his first experience as head coach in the elite (2015-2020).
More bloody
Freddy Fauthoux had also been discovered on the bench of the French team as an assistant to the 2014 U16 European champions with future NBA players Frank Ntilikina, Killian TIllie, Yves Pons and Adam Mokoka, before having Victor Wembanyama under his command at ASVEL in 2021/22 then Zaccharie Risacher last year.
“ I don't know if I have a particular method but I am someone close with my players » detailed the coach at Basketball Europe. “ I function a lot on a human level, it’s in me. That doesn't mean I let everything go, I know how to be tough from time to time, but it also means loving your players, trying to understand them, communicating with them. »
After the cold Collet, cerebral and above all educational, here is the warm Fauthoux, more sanguine.
“Vincent is complete, but he does not express what he says much more in the select committee. He showed a lot of resilience, while Freddy is much more expressive, he puts pressure on the outside, he is agitated on the bench, very expressive, he throws tantrums” explains Claude Bergeaud.
He will now have to learn to juggle his daily life in Ain and the manager's hat, his international windows during the season and very different group management, even if he has already experienced the expanded squad at ASVEL. “Just like a player who aspires to wearing this blue jersey, as a coach, it’s the best job you can hope for” he insists on the website of his Bourg-en-Bresse club. “However, I don't see this as a dream come true or a consecration, for me it is above all the opportunity to help keep the French team at the top of the world ladder. This will begin with an unusual trip to Cyprus on November 21 for the EuroBasket qualifiers.
