FRA - Basketball strong in France thanks to INSEP

PARIS (FIBA) - France's bronze medal at EuroBasket 2005 was the first continental hardware for Les Bleus in 46 years.

This summer, the French are among the hot favourites to snatch gold at the FIBA World Championship in Japan. France will have a very young team in Japan.

The average age of the French side in Serbia & Montenegro was just 26.3 years. And the team will only get younger now that 34-year-old Antoine Rigaudeau has retired. Do not be surprised to see a flood of new talent rush into the French national team, which already features budding superstars Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Mickael Gelabale and the Pietrus brothers - Mikael and Florent.

And there's plenty of young guns developing at all levels, including Ronny Turiaf with the Los Angeles Lakers, Johan Petro of the Seattle SuperSonics, San Antonio Spurs draft pick Ian Mahinmi, Tony Parker's younger brother TJ Parker as well as junior stars such as Nicolas Batum and Alexis Ajinca. One thing Tony Parker, Diaw, Turiaf, Petro, Batum and Ajinca all have in common is the Institut National du Sport et de l'Education Physique.

The INSEP is France's talent-producing factory for various sports, including a women's program which has helped develop the likes of Sandra Le Dréan (US Valenciennes), Fatimatou Sacko (ESB Lille Metropole) and Florence Lepron (Tarbes Gespe Bigorre). A key to the INSEP men's basketball program's success is head coach Richard Billant.

The former second division French coach has headed the men's team at INSEP since 1999. He coached the U-20 French national team and recently coached the junior national team at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament in Germany, which France won.
 
Billant spoke to PA Sport's David Hein on behalf of FIBA at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament about France's talent development, INSEP's importance, the French junior team and their chance at July's U-18 European Championships in Greece.

FIBA: Coach, France is producing lots of talent. What's the secret?

Billant: We're just working. In France we have a very good organisation with the (national basketball) federation in the front and the team as well. Both of them work together for the same goal - to work at making the kid into a guy into an adult.

I think the organisation is very good for both the girls and boys. We've had excellent results in the European Championships with the girls and boys because last year, we finished in the first position in Europe with girls and boys together. I think it's because the organisation is good.
 
FIBA: Most of the talented French basketball players come through the INSEP. How important in all this is the school?

Billant: As coach of the INSEP we have seven players here. We are together three years. The best players stay three years. They are in school five hours a day and have two practices each day.

We have a very good (league) championships because we play against adults in the third division. So we play against good players - some who have played professionally in higher leagues before and are now about 30 years old and it's still very tough.

FIBA: Is it a long season?

Billant: We have 34 games each year and each game is very difficult. Last season we won just four games. It's very tough because it's against adults. We lose in the championships but now we are good at this tournament because we play hard and difficult during the season.
 
FIBA: The side at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament was pretty much the same team that won the European cadets championships last year.

Billant: We were missing two very good players. One of them was a guard - Abdoulaye M'Baye. He's a guard and played in Under-18 and he played well. And there were centers who at the moment were a little bit hurt and we decided to leave them at the institute to rest and recover. We have three more players who play on the team. It will be difficult to make the team for the others. But you can see that we have in place the best part of the team.

FIBA: France won the 2004 cadets title, and in the French third division the INSEP team plays against adults. But how important was a tournament like the Albert Schweitzer Tournament where your players took on players of their own age?

Billant: This tournament was very important for us because we were playing against the best players of each team in the world. So it's a good evaluation for us. It's a good preparation collectively as a team but also individually as well.
 
FIBA: At the Under-18 European Championships in Greece this July, France have been drawn into the difficult Group D with Croatia, Spain and Iceland. What do you think about France's chances?

Billant: Croatia is a very good team. You have to be careful of Spain looking at the (Albert Schweitzer) tournament because I don't think all the players were there. And I think they can play much better than they did here. It is a tough group.

I don't know Iceland so I don't want to speak about them. But the three teams are very good and one of these teams will not play at the end. So it's very tough and very difficult but we know that we can win. We have a good team. But it's a difficult championship.

PA Sport