Between canapes, platters of cold meats and cheeses, as well as the background noise of the gym while a weight room was improvised in the mixed zone, Vincent Collet looked back on France's crushing victory (96-46) against Turkey, at the start of the Blues' preparation.
More than the final gap, which is only anecdotal, the French coach was pleased with the progress of his team, particularly on its priority playing principles, namely defense, recovery and ball movement. And then, obviously, we could not not talk about the performance of Victor Wembanyama, already brilliant.
“I don't have my list completely in mind yet.”
Vincent, what did you think of this first preparation match which launches the Olympic campaign, against a rather weak Turkish team?
It's not the gap that interests me obviously tonight, because it always depends on adversity. Despite everything, it goes both ways. Of the 46 points they scored, 20 were on free throws. They only made 11 out of 50 shots, it's not often that we get to that total. The most important thing was to want to show our identity right away. We've all been working together for six days now, and a little more with the others, but since the beginning, we've had one obsession, to build a defense that's out of the ordinary. Tonight was a first step, but we'll still have to improve of course, do better and there's material to do it. In our identity, there's not only defense, there's also the recovery, we scored 43 recovery points, that's a lot! The opponent had a lot to do with it too, but we have a desire to project ourselves forward, with quick ball transfers, even on the transition, which produced a lot of effective things, we will continue in this direction. And then, even in a successful match, there are things less good. Our set-ups are sometimes too slow, and against more defensively aggressive teams, it will be a real problem. It is not always the case, it depended on the five. In any case, it is an area of work. This one was a somewhat special match, starting Saturday, we will be entitled to five very high-end matches, including this match against the world champions which will be of a completely different caliber.
Do you already have in mind the names of the players who will be selected for the rest of the preparation, or is this match still part of the selection process?
No, I haven't yet [ma liste] in mind. I have it a little more now, but I don't have it completely. Saturday's game will be very important, and the training sessions. Our last training sessions since Friday have been very intense. Not all of them. We put colors according to the intensity level, and we had a minimum per day that is red intensity. That's where we observe a lot of things, just like a game like tonight's. That's of course why we rotated the backs a lot, because that's where the discussions are going well. We have important teaching elements, not just who plays well, who plays less well, but it's linked to our identity. We evaluate the players primarily on these aspects. On defense of course, but also on ball movement. I recently talked about the “50 swings”, the ball has to move…
You tested a lot of different fives, at least two completely different ones in each quarter, what did you want to observe in particular?
What matters to us a lot is the functioning of the five, the dynamics, and clearly, the first five [composé de Matthew Strazel, Isaia Cordinier, Bilal Coulibaly, Victor Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert]it totally corresponds to what I want to see for this French Team this summer. It's the visual impression that it should give, and even if we missed shots, finishing actions, it's not important. The most important thing now is what we put in place, that we stick to the text. I was talking about swings (side transfers), restarts, it's a requirement. We didn't do a single training session without a restart exercise, to tell you how important it is to me, so that everyone can absorb it. I think it corresponds to our team profile. We saw Coulibaly's flights in the second half. And he's not the only one. We have several wingers who have this ability to cross the open game. In the things to improve, our launch pad was hesitant, we still procrastinated while we had good rebounds.
“In terms of space coverage, having both is unheard of!”
What did you think of the performance of the Wembanyama – Gobert duo, on both sides of the field, because we saw some interesting relationships to put the ball under the circle between the two men?
It is obvious to everyone that their defensive association does not pose a problem. The question arose more in attack because it is not easy to play with two very big players but Victor has the ability to spread out. Above all, he showed tonight his ability to pass. Rudy benefited from his services at the start of the match. In terms of defense, space coverage, having both, it is obviously very beneficial, it is even unheard of! Even when one goes far from the basket, the other protects him. It is all the more effective since the three outside players chase the ball carrier and bring him towards the trap. Hence the importance of the pressure and the defensive quality of the outside players. Our defense will only be exceptional if the outside players make their contribution to harassing the opponent. It is also a work of undermining.
What aspects of the game will you be looking at in the upcoming double-header against Germany, which is on a completely different level? Among them, would the inside pass not be an objective?
We're not going to add anything more, we're going to play with the same shapes. We want to continue to establish our identity, on simple things. You noticed, on the first actions of the match, we actually had this research, in the relationship between the high post and the low post. We'll have to show that it's a strong point, with Mathias too who showed us this in training. Even if we're going to play hard, it's going to be a game of liar's poker. We're going to play simple, basic things but on the intensity, it's going to be interesting. Germany has a lot of assets on the offensive register, so it's going to be interesting to see how our defense can control and limit them.
What did you think of Victor Wembanyama's performance, who scored 24 points and was omnipresent in the circle, with five spectacular alley-oops that thrilled the sold-out Kindarena crowd?
He is able to go get balls where no one else can go! He is an extraordinary player. We set up simple systems where we make screens in the back to free him up and that should free him up, but also other players. But if we talk about his alley-oops and his spectacular actions, what I liked the most was his start to the match, the seriousness. He did not try to shine at all, he did it because he is very strong and he ends up making brilliant actions. His start to the match was a lot of passes, a lot of patience, it is this Victor who can take us very far.
Interview conducted in Rouen
