FRA – France taking it one step at a time ahead of Czech Republic

PARIS (2010 FIBA World Championship for Women) – Pierre Vincent wears two hats as a leading coach in France.

Not only does he guide juggernauts Bourges, one of the most famous clubs in Europe.

He also holds the reins to France’s national team, the side he guided to an unexpected gold medal at last year’s EuroBasket Women in Latvia.

It means that while Vincent is trying to guide Bourges to another domestic title, he has to keep one eye on Les Bleues and the exciting challenge they face later this year in the Czech Republic.

Vincent and France will be looking to have an impressive showing in their eighth FIBA World Championship for Women appearance.

“The aim will be to the qualify for the final stages,” Vincent said.

“It will be complicated because behind the United States and Australia, there are not many places.

“But if it makes qualification for the final rounds more difficult, it does give us the assurance of meeting neither in the Quarter-Finals.”

Indeed, France were drawn against Olympic gold-medalists United States, Greece and African champions Senegal in Group B of the 16-team tournament and will play in Ostrava.

The reason why it’s going to be hard just to reach the last eight is because of the sides they will also come up against in the Eight-Final Round.

Should France advance, they will take on the three teams that emerge from a Group A that is loaded with quality in defending champions Australia, Canada, Belarus and China.

Unlike last summer, Vincent will not have the luxury of having Cathy Melain, the veteran who came out of retirement to help the French and captured her second European title.

She retired for good after Latvia.

Emmanuelle Hermouet also won’t play in the Czech Republic after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament in January while playing for Toulouse.

“Now we must rebuild,” Vincent said, “including the perimeter where we must replace Cathy Melain and perhaps others, so it is a huge undertaking that lies ahead.”

The biggest difference for Vincent and France is that they will be taking on teams with very different styles to their own.

France, who played at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Brazil and finished fifth, didn’t qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

So while 2009 FIBA Europe Women’s Player of the Year Sandrine Gruda, Emmeline Ndongue, Celine Dumerc, Sandra Dijon and Elodie Godin all played in Brazil, several others that will travel to the Czech Republic will not have experience at the highest level of a national team tournament.

"In preparation for the World Championship, we do not want something too long, so we have opted for a preparation of six weeks beginning with a 15-day period at Alpe d'Huez,” Collet said.

“This training camp will allow us to develop our game plan before playing a lot of games. We will play teams from all continents that we are not necessarily accustomed to such as Brazil, Japan, or Argentina.”

What France did last year that was so well was make a commitment to getting better at every practice, and every game. Vincent, and the veterans in the team, did not put too much pressure on themselves.

Without the burden of expectations, but possessing a great team spirit, France thrived.

“The major objective since the beginning has been the 2011 European Championship to qualify for the London Olympics,” Vincent said.

“We played the Euro 2009 with this mindset, which did not prevent us from being champions of Europe.”

The United States, Australia and Russia – the side France beat in last year’s EuroBasket Women Final – will be the favorites to reach the podium.

That will be just fine for France.

FIBA