"I think about my selection every morning", admits Vincent Collet

• Like every Monday, 

  20 Minutes

   gives the floor to a sports actor or actress who is making the news.

  This week, it's time for Vincent Collet.

• The coach of the Blues is entering the Olympic Games a little this week with the announcement of the players who will make up Team France this summer in Tokyo.

• This list, Vincent Collet has been preparing for months.

  How? 'Or' What ?

  What does he do on a daily basis, he who is no longer a club coach?

Behind the mask, his emaciated face can be seen.

“I didn't already have too many but I lost 5 to 6 kg in ten days.

I am in the process of taking them back, ”admits Vincent Collet.

Just recovered from the Covid-19, the coach of the Blues agreed to confide.

From Strasbourg, where he remained to live after being dismissed from his duties as club coach in January 2020.

Despite this mine still tired by the virus, the technician, in place since 2009, is "eager" to embark on the adventure of the Olympic Games.

First big step this week with the announcement of a list expanded to fifteen players, reduced a little later to twelve names.

Then the preparation will begin on June 23 at Insep before an internship in Pau.

The Blues will then be only one month away from their entry into contention in Japan.

Against… the United States.

The first question arises, how are you?

Better than a month ago!

I am in an active recovery phase but physically it is still hard.

I, who used to run a bit, have to go gradually.

Apart from this delicate period, what does your daily life look like?

There are two main poles.

First, that of observation.

Before coming to see you this afternoon, I watched the performance of Vincent Poirier (Real Madrid) against Valencia and the day before, it was the meetings of Nicolas Batum and Frank Ntilkina.

I see a lot of games, sometimes five to six a day, live or not.

Especially from the Euroleague because collectively, it is what is closest to international basketball, less to the NBA.

The second pole is precisely to keep abreast of what is being done at the highest world level.

It opens me reflections.

I feed off all that to know what our game will be this summer.

Do you think you've become a better manager since you no longer have that double club coach hat?

I have different conditions, it seems obvious to me. All this observation work, I had already carried out in previous years, but not with the same acuity. I also had a recovery phase in the fall (after the World Cup) which allowed me to regenerate. With Valérie Garnier (the coach of the Bleues), we also worked with a mental coach. It allowed me to learn again and I would not have had the time to do so by continuing in a club.

At the start of the season, I wondered how my year would go without coaching too much.

I had the chance to go once a month to Insep to direct the young people of the Pôle France.

It did me good.

I missed training rather, but I experienced it better than I thought.

Over time, we will have to see what happens because there is a real work of reflexes in the profession to know for example when to put down time.

I hope to find them soon!

Today, would it seem inconceivable to you to carry out these two professions simultaneously?

It's difficult to have a strong position.

I was at a club in previous years and, like the players, it's important to play regularly.

Then the question does not arise for the moment because my contract comes to an end next August.

But you want to continue until the Olympic Games of 2024 in Paris ...

Yes, but I know how it goes in high performance sport.

It is the result in Tokyo that will allow the Federation to decide and I accept this rule of the game. Even if it presents a real problem of timing if I had to engage elsewhere

Does that mean that in the meantime, you refuse any proposal from a club?

Honestly, the market is very closed at the moment and the coaches are well established.

For the moment, I have not had any solicitation, perhaps also because we know that I am in the France team.

All that does not panic me.

I don't think about that when I wake up.

I rather think about my selection every morning.

Your listing announcement is for this week.

How are you going to build your group?

Today, there are 18 or 20 players who deserve to be in the 12 who will go to the Olympics. This is one of the first times when we have so many credible candidates [Yabusele, Fall, Heurtel, Maledon or others were not there in 2019 and are applying this time]. For me, it is a real difficulty to choose. There is already an important team framework but to complete, it requires each time reflection.

We get into the problems of complementarity, of performance over a given playing time and that's all that will make the decision.

We have to manage to put together the team we need, not the one linked only to the raw performance of the players.

We must manage to find an operational cohesion to allow us to achieve our objectives.

We must therefore make choices by taking as much information as possible upstream and think through all the parameters as well as possible.

But without ever having certainties, at best convictions.

This list, you must have made and undone so many times, right?

Yes, of course even if it doesn't change at all.

We are taking back the team structure of the World Cup because it worked well (bronze medal).

We must not upset everything.

Afterwards, we want to improve the team by small adjustments to climb additional steps.

We still have uncertainties and we will have them until the end.

This step passed, you will really get into the preparation at the end of June during an internship in Pau.

What kind of coach are you on a daily basis?

To be in basketball for over forty years, I must already say that I have a serious and hard-working group.

It characterizes this generation.

One of my big missions is for the players to take ownership of the objectives and everything that can help us achieve them.

From the first days, we will define the principles to which we will stick.

I am in the co-construction, I want the players to participate in all of this.

Have you always been in this perspective?

I have evolved over the years and it's a job where you have to stay learning all the time.

I don't know if I was more directive before, but I didn't have this vision of co-construction.

In the first fifteen days of preparation, we must also define the roles of each.

Everyone does not have the same and that requires dialogue.

Some go from leader in their club to another selection function and it is not always easy to understand.

It will also be the time to work on your game. Will it change for this new competition?

Yes, there will be a lot of changes, as was already the case in 2019. But we're not going to reinvent everything either!

We start on a dozen different systems.

All players will have them at the start of the camp on paper, with the different options.

Let's talk about the Olympic Games.

The Blues fell on a pretty terrible group ...

We do not yet know our second opponent but we can fear that it is Canada, Greece or Turkey, who will face each other in the qualifying tournament.

Before, we will start against the United States.

We do not know what their team will look like but I think it will be even stronger than last year (when the Blues had knocked them down, in the quarterfinals of the World Cup).

I think there will be one or two headliners among LeBron James, Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry.

It will be a Dream Team… I would add that we will also have to be wary of Iran.

I watched one of their match against Spain at the 2019 World Cup. They were leading in the 15th minute against the future champion.

Is it good or bad news to have the United States with you?

It's interesting to have them in the pool because in the event of a quarter-final, we know that we won't play them there.

But what is not good is that the two best thirds of each group qualify… Having the Americans with you makes it more difficult because we can assume that they will produce the biggest gaps.

Despite everything, we will try to do an exploit against them.

Knowing that they could also be embarrassed by the NBA play-offs… Game 7 of the final is scheduled for July 22, three days before your clash!

This unknown can also bother us in the preparation but it is true, less than them.

It is difficult today to know who will go far.

Let's go back to France.

It has been a pretty incredible season for Jeep Elite clubs.

Monaco won the Eurocup, ASVEL did not disappoint in the Euroleague and Strasbourg rose to the half of the Champions League.

Can you explain these good results?

These are clearly good performances and positive signs, yes.

Afterwards, to talk about the championship, this is the first time this year that we have seen such a gap between the first eight and the others.

Maybe because the best teams have improved, I don't know.

I must have struggled to analyze it all.

The season is really special with empty rooms.

I hope we will quickly return to the sport we love, shared with the public.

Sport

NBA: New king of triple-double, Russell Westbrook makes history

Sport

Champions League: Strasbourg bows against Zaragoza and finishes at the foot of the podium

• Sport

• Strasbourg

• Vincent Collet

• French team

• Basketball

• Olympic Games