Keep calm. Imperturbable, as usual. Except no. Because with these Blues, it’s hard not to lose your nerve. On his bench, coach Vincent Collet is therefore a bit more restless than usual, embarked on this emotional roller coaster imposed on him by his players in a whirlwind European championship.
In the round of 16 against Turkey, they had already done it, qualified on the wire after snatching extra time in the last unlikely seconds. In the quarter against Italy, the same thing: the score caught up in extremis at the end of the match to obtain miraculous extensions.
And here they are in the semi-finals this Friday, September 16 against Poland, a surprise guest. A new summit for Vincent Collet, who, seemingly, never stops enriching an extended list of winners. Since taking office in 2009, this is the seventh time that he has led his troops into the last four in twelve international competitions.
Orange Ball Child
All this was written very early in the little head of the kid who was already dreaming under the basket installed in the family garden of Montivilliers, in the suburbs of Le Havre. Because basketball was almost everything.
His father André, after playing, coached the local club team, the Amicale Laïque, which he would later chair. Vincent is therefore a child of the orange ball, the passion of a lifetime. Besides, he knows very quickly, from his first years as a player, that after his career, he will not let go. Throughout his 18 years on the courts (French champion in 1982 with Le Mans), he enjoys sharing, transmitting, often talking with the youngest of the clubs where he goes. He is a playmaker on the field, he will be a leader of men on the bench.
Of what genre ? « Machine », “chess player”, “well of knowledge”, ” perfectionist “the comments of the players on the guy often go in the same direction, to the point of giving Coach Collet a reputation as an austere monomaniac.
This is not totally false, as he likes to master his subject and always deepen his knowledge of the game. In 2020, after the break “painful, badly lived and not totally digested”he let go last year, with the Strasbourg club where he spent ten years, in addition to his mandate with the national team, Vincent Collet applied himself to what he calls a “saving break”. That is “a lot of work on mental preparation”and another on “very important personal development”. And then hours and hours of expert bulimia watching games. To do better, as always.
Maturity and sharing
“The questioning is systematic, even if we win”, he often repeats. The leitmotif guided his career with the Blues, from the outset. When he arrived in 2009, it was to restore order in the house and finally take advantage of the talent of a golden generation with Tony Parker and Boris Diaw headlining. It will take two years for everything to be in order, and for the French cadors of the NBA to finally perform in blue: silver at Euro 2011, gold at that of 2013, bronze at the Worlds of 2014, and the bronze again at Euro 2015 in France. Nice series.
But then back to earth. A disappointing sixth place at the Rio Games and above all a catastrophic twelfth place at the Euro in 2017, the first failure after the retirement of Tony Parker, during which the team fired wildly, without any solidarity. Call to order: nothing is ever acquired.
Vincent Collet still retains the confidence of federal leaders to begin reconstruction. He then has the intelligence to review his methods, to open up by expanding the management team. A great complicity is born with his new assistant Pascal Donnadieu, changed today to “real friendship”.
Vincent Collet also recognizes being more in sharing with his players. He’s talking about ” maturity “ as far as he is concerned, at 59 years old. Rediscovered alchemy: bronze at the 2019 Worlds and silver at the last Tokyo Games, this Olympic medal which was still missing from his hunting list. This does not prevent him from granting himself only a small part in the collective success.
“Of course, the coach influences performance, but in proportions that are often quite small. I don’t know if it’s 10 to 15%, but it’s not much more.he measured in Le Figaro after the medal in Japan. Fake modest? Maybe. Still, if these 15% are enough to maintain excellence until Paris in 2024, then this word is golden.
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The Polish Surprise
Upsetting, this Euro? to say the least. One by one fell the giants of the competition, to the point of leaving only the Blues as big favorites in the last four. After Serbia eliminated in the round of 16, and Greece erased by Germany in the quarter, it was the Slovenia of star Luka Doncic who collapsed on Wednesday September 14 against Poland (87-90), which find themselves in the continental semi-finals for the first time since… 1969.
The Blues will face the Polish surprise this Friday, September 16 at 5:15 p.m. (the match will be broadcast on Canal + 360 and unencrypted on W9). In the other semi-final, Germany will challenge Spain at 8:30 p.m.
