While the few journalists present at the brand new CO’Met Arena in Orléans were patiently awaiting the end of the day’s training session, Pascal Donnadieu, the long-time assistant of the Blues, came to drop us a line. “It was I who had the idea of giving them -1 [à chaque rebond offensif concédé] because they piss us off with it! »
The oppositions in five against five were thus a little longer than usual, which was obviously not to displease us, but the staff of Vincent Collet has no intention of letting this kind of shortcomings pass.
Waiting for Venezuela tomorrowthen Lithuania on Wednesday (before a return match in Vilnius in stride), the watchword of the Blues is again and always discipline!
Vincent, you have returned to training after a short break of a few days, how did you feel about the players for this second phase which is beginning in your preparation program?
“The group is well concentrated, with a lot of energy and will. It was rather a good session after three days of interruption. »
Do you think you are in the nails, in what you planned before starting the preparation?
“It’s still very early. There, [à Pau et à Montpellier], we were on a first block of discovery and getting started. We can say more at the end of the week, when we have played our three games. These will give us more guidance on how to proceed. What we can rely on even more and what we must develop and work on. We will have those answers this week. With the two games in Orleans, but even more likely with the one we will play in Vilnius. »
“We have to be able to defend in the zone if necessary”
We saw you work on the defensive zone at the end of training, is this the point on which you are focusing on the two upcoming games in Orléans, against Venezuela tomorrow, then Lithuania on Wednesday?
“It is almost essential in the international concert to be able to use defensive variations which can pose problems, even momentary. Even if we already have a man-to-man defense which is pretty good, that doesn’t prevent it! We know that today, in high-level basketball, you have to be able to adapt. We must be able to impose things on our adversary, as they will impose them on us. It’s an additional weapon that we must have. We won’t go from man to man in the zone for fun, but we have to be able to do it if necessary. We must go even further, we are still building, step by step. We don’t have a lot of preparation time so we can’t do everything. »
On the case of Mathias Lessort, are we going to see him play in Orléans, as you seemed to indicate a week ago?
“It is the medical staff who always decide. We remain cautious, as usual. We decided to spare him, in agreement with the medical staff, and then we reacted by calling Yoan [Makoundou] to be able to function. We trained almost two hours tonight and we will do the same on Tuesday. We will continue to work. These matches are part of a fundamental work, we do not act as if it were really competition, since we train the day before and the day after. We need to have all these training partners. »
“In attack, we want more precision in what we do”
What do you expect for the next game, against a little-known opponent like Venezuela?
“I don’t know… We’re going to watch Spain-Venezuela the other night, but only us coaches. We will not necessarily give a lot of information to the players. From Lithuania, we will start to scout our opponents more. (…) But at this stage, that’s not what matters to me. I am totally focused on us. See how we develop our achievements. In attack, we want more precision in what we do, in aggressiveness and in spacing. What we saw in the first two games was that we had the right mindset to share the ball. Now we have to go further. We must give the best possible solutions to the ball carrier. This is one of the objectives of our next matches. And then, in defense, continue to develop cooperation and defensive articulations, especially in the zone. For now, this is not enough! The last point is rebound control. We were very weak against Montenegro, we absolutely have to improve on that! We know that we are not too efficient in this area, already last year. So we want to tackle it. »
How do you explain this problem with rebounds, which seems paradoxical as the French team does not seem to have already had so many “greats” inside?
“The problem is technical: we don’t box-out [les écrans retard] ! And it’s not so much the fault of the greats, it’s also the outsiders who come from afar to steal rebounds. As long as we don’t box out, we will be vulnerable. And on the other side, we don’t have much aggressiveness to go for the offensive rebound. It depends a lot on the players. Rudy goes there, Tarpey or Yakuba Ouattara can go there but very few go there. It’s really a technical problem. We have already asked for it but we need to be aware. Anyone can make a box-out but you have to want to do it! We need to be much more focused on that! »
Interview in Orléans
