PARIS (FIBA U20 European Championship 2017) - Elie Okobo will be using his national team experience from last summer to lead France at the FIBA U20 European Championship 2017 - where he and France will be playing for their sickened teammate Jonathan Jeanne.

France are expected to have a team stacked with talent for the tournament in Crete from July 15-23. But they lost one of their potentially top guys as Jeanne - a mobile big man standing 7ft 1in (2.17m) - was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome, a possible career-ending illness.

Okobo said the news hit the team hard and the French will definitely have Jeanne on their mind when they play in Crete, where they are drawn into Group B with Iceland, Montenegro and Turkey.

The French U20 team will be thinking of Jonathan Jeanne this summer after the big man talent was diagnosed with a potentially career-ending disease.

"That is terrible. Everybody was very surprised and shocked," Okobo said. "All the guys from the team have been supportive and we will compete for him, thinking about him during every game at the tournament. We want to achieve big things and show him a lot of love and support."

France have not won a FIBA U20 European Championship crown since 2010 with just one Semi-Final appearance since the 2012 Final.

"Plenty of teams are going to want to win it all, and we are ambitious too," Okobo said. "We need to play as a team and we have plenty of talented guys, so we can reach the podium and fight for the title."

Okobo will be one of the leaders for head coach Jean Aime Toupane's team. The 6ft 2in (1.87m) guard led the French U20 team in scoring last summer as the team slumped to 13th place. In addition to his 18.9 points, the Bordeaux-native also chipped in 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists."It was great as playing for the national team is one of my career goals," said Okobo, who made his international debut last summer after narrowly missing out on spots in previous youth national teams the two summers before. "I grew up watching the 'Bleus' playing at the international level and I want to represent my country the best way."

He added: "Playing last year at the FIBA U20 European Championship 2016 was a great experience. I learned a lot despite the mediocre results we had. We want to have a much better campaign this summer."

Okobo, who played this past season with Pau-Lacq-Orthez in the FIBA Europe Cup, is one of five players who were bottom level players last summer, and that will help the team in Crete as well."It's important to have guys on the roster that know how to deal with this kind of pressure and that have some international experience," Okobo said. "We can all bring something positive and help the younger guys on the roster to get adjusted to that level of competition."

One younger player Okobo is looking forward to playing with this summer is Sekou Doumbouya - France's next gem who was named to the All-Star Five of the FIBA U18 European Championship 2016. The Final was played one day before his 16th birthday.

"He seems to be a very talented player who has a lot of great physical tools. He had a great campaign last year with the U18 team and I like his basketball I.Q.," Okobo said. "Being that talented at that age is great, and I am sure it can help us a lot during the tournament. He is still a young guy but he can play very well."

FIBA