FRA - All Steed can do is win

CHALON (Olympics) - Steed Tchicamboud got a call he wasn't expecting last summer after playing for Elan Chalon and helping them win the Coupe de France.

France’s national team needed the 30-year-old point guard as a late replacement for Antoine Diot, when the Le Mans playmaker pulled out of the EuroBasket squad with back problems.

Diot had excelled for Les Bleus at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland but he missed the FIBA World Championship the next year in Turkey.

Despite playing a lot of minutes for Le Mans, injuries prevented him from going to Lithuania last summer with the national team.

Tchicamboud, who had 16 caps with France, didn't know the plays but coach Vincent Collet told him it didn’t matter.

He needed the veteran to play defense.

Everything else would fall into place.

Tchicamboud played in Lithuania.

He averaged 10 minutes in three of France's first four games – all wins – and then spent most of the rest of the tournament cheering on his teammates as they won the silver medal to qualify for the Olympics.

"It was good," Tchicamboud says, looking back.

The late call-up allowed Tchicamboud to spend time with his close friend, San Antonio Spurs great Tony Parker.

France went on to win the silver medal and qualify for the Olympics.

For Tchicamboud, the experience had meant a lot.

He learned a great deal from Parker, a master at the point guard position, and returned to his club a better player.

London chance

Parker and everyone else celebrated last year after their win over Russia in the Semi-Finals because it qualified the team for the EuroBasket.

Most of those to contribute in that success will travel to London but some, like Tchicamboud, won’t know if they have a chance for quite a while.

France have many options in the backcourt, with Parker and Nando De Colo certainties.

Roddy Beaubois is showing his best form again with the Dallas Mavericks and Fabien Causeur, a member of the 2010 squad, is now averaging 16 points per game for Cholet.

Andrew Albicy, who has played the last two summers with Les Bleus, has done well with Gravelines-Dunkerque.

Coach Collet says the experienced players in the France squad, including Mickael Gelabale and Ronny Turiaf, who haven't played much this season still have a great shot of making it to the Olympics because they are leaders in the team.

How does Tchicamboud rate his chances?

"I really don't know," he said to FIBA.com.

The best thing he can do is play well, and win championships.

If he does, the 1.93m playmaker believes he has his best chance of wearing the France shirt at the London Games.

Chalon have already won the Semaines des As and they are second in the French top flight behind Gravelines-Dunkerque.

They have qualified for the EuroChallenge Final Four, too.

"First of all," Tchicamboud said, "if I win some titles with my team, I'm going to have a call from the coach of the national team.

"When, I don't know.

"First of all, I need to have a big season with my teammates.

"Then, we'll see if I go to the Olympics.”

So far, Chalon could not have done much more.

"We're having a good season,” he said.

“We won the (Semaines des) As tournament.

“We're having a good year in the French league and Europe.

"We want to be on top in both competitions.”

While Tchicamboud waits, Diot’s dreams of making it to London are fading fast.

A herniated disc forced him to hit the operating table on Monday and it’s not yet known when the point guard will play again.

FIBA