The man who has been coach of the French team for fifteen years is leaving his post on Monday, September 9, after a final medal at the Paris Olympic Games, silver against the United States, and a well-stocked trophy cabinet.
It’s a (big) page in French basketball that is turning. The departure of the coach of the Blues, Vincent Collet, was made official by the French Basketball Federation on Monday, September 9, after a fifteen-year mandate concluded with a new medal, the silver won at the Paris Olympic Games.
“Normally, I finish,” said the 61-year-old Norman after the defeat in the Olympic Games final against the United States on August 10 (98-87), not completely closing the door to an extension as he was coming to the end of his contract. “We have decided by mutual agreement with Vincent that he will no longer be the coach of the French senior team,” However, the president of the French Federation (FFBB) Jean-Pierre Siutat said at a press conference in Paris.
Vincent Collet has been appointed special advisor to the National Technical Directorate of the FFBB, the latter announced. He will be responsible for transmitting his “expertise in the field of technical training of players and coaches”, said the national technical director, Alain Contensoux.
Vincent Collet leaves his position as coach with, by far, the most impressive record at the head of Les Bleus, which he took over in 2009 replacing Michel Gomez: eight medals, including one title (Euro-2013), the only one in their history, snatched from the Spain of the Pau Gasol generation, who has so often been their executioner. The French team has won as many medals in fifteen years with Collet as in more than 80 years before him, and the former full-back has brought them eight of their ten podiums since 2000.
Including a frustrating final one at Bercy, where she held her own against the Americans, as she did three years earlier in Tokyo (82-87), less than a year after being knocked out in the first round of the World Cup in Jakarta. One of the rare times that Les Bleus missed out under Collet’s mandate, as they have only been eliminated three times before the final phase of a competition in fifteen years.
“Tactics Masterclass”
The 2024 Olympic tournament was nevertheless off to a bad start, starting with a series of four defeats in preparation before a chaotic group stage, concluded by a rout against Germany (85-71). But the Blues were then transformed with the final phase, a transformation that owes a lot to Collet, according to the players.
Evan Fournier thus highlighted the two “tactics masterclass” concocted by the coach in the quarter-finals against Canada (82-73) then in the semi-finals against the Germans (73-69), as well as the “good man’s speech” that he held for them before the decisive match against the North Americans. “Vincent, he has this gift of galvanizing the group, he did it again tonight. It’s his victory tonight, for him and his staff, clearly”had supported Nicolas Batum after this match. The captain had then, after the final, paid tribute to the “best French coach in history”obsessively passionate about basketball, hard worker with insomniac tendencies.
A former full-back born, coquetry of destiny, in Sainte-Adresse (Seine-Maritime), who will have been the architect of the most beautiful and longest page in the history of the Blues.
