The 2009 French NT thread

[kace]

Mike Pietrus just said he won't play in the European Tournament if France qualifies and he said he hopes if brother Florent will play for the Bobcats this season.

[spursballer21]

it looks bad at the moment

[ForeignFan]

turiaf dunks on dime from Diot
60-32

[ForeignFan]

turiaf looks hurt, bad news

[ForeignFan]

this game has been over for 10'

70-37 end of Q3

[ForeignFan]

end of game 92-55

Nice reaction after Thursday's defeat, but, really, how did they lose in Belgium ?

[Bruno]

^ the final score is 92-54.

Nice win by FNT. They are now qualified for the Euro and the failure of last summer has been erased. The team should be quite mentally or physically fresh for the Euro. They have been very inconsistent, so I don't know what to expect from them in Poland.

Spurs related: TP has been ok, Nando has been very good, Ian has played very few minutes. Diot is someone to keep and eye on during the future drafts.

[Brazil]

Originally Posted by Brazil

This game is gonna be a tough one. Ian needs more minutes, TP needs to find a good balance between Offense and team involvement, Batum and Diaw need to show they are for real.

lol at myself

[Blackjack]

France Takes Care of Business, Destroys Belgium
by Timothy Varner

France needed a 5 point victory to advance past Belgium into Eurobasket proper. They got that, and tacked on an additional 33 for good measure, winning this morning’s contest in a 92-54 rout...

[velik_m]

Good job France.

With Belgium out, that's one less team Slovenia needs to worry about. Now we just need to avoid Israel&Latvia...

[Pero]

Originally Posted by velik_m

Good job France.

With Belgium out, that's one less team Slovenia needs to worry about. Now we just need to avoid Israel&Latvia...

[Pero]

Well that should be interesting, Golemac on Schorchanitis?

[Pero]

Oops wrong thread.

[ivanfromwestwood]

Originally Posted by Bruno

^ the final score is 92-54.

Nice win by FNT. They are now qualified for the Euro and the failure of last summer has been erased. The team should be quite mentally or physically fresh for the Euro. They have been very inconsistent, so I don't know what to expect from them in Poland.

Spurs related: TP has been ok, Nando has been very good, Ian has played very few minutes. Diot is someone to keep and eye on during the future drafts.

hey bruno. where can we find highlites of the game? be wanting to see nando play. thanks

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by ivanfromwestwood

hey bruno. where can we find highlites of the game? be wanting to see nando play. thanks

Some highlights (quite short):
http://player.canalplus.fr/#/271508

[DPG21920]

Man, Bruno does this type of game make you shake your head at the FNT when you see them play down to the level of their opponent and lose to them earlier?

When I watch them play I notice a few things:

1) Coaching is sometimes shaky with rotations and not making adjustments in game.

2) Lazy on offense. Really just stand around and the passing is lazy.

3) Defense seems active for the most part, but ineffective often.

Do you see the same things? Why do you think they play so poorly sometimes (more often than they should)? Is it just an attitude problem?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by DPG21920

Man, Bruno does this type of game make you shake your head at the FNT when you see them play down to the level of their opponent and lose to them earlier?

When I watch them play I notice a few things:

1) Coaching is sometimes shaky with rotations and not making adjustments in game.

2) Lazy on offense. Really just stand around and the passing is lazy.

3) Defense seems active for the most part, but ineffective often.

Do you see the same things? Why do you think they play so poorly sometimes (more often than they should)? Is it just an attitude problem?

A lot of players in the FNT need to play with a high level of energy/motivation to be good and when they don't have it, the team suffers and its weaknesses appear. FNT has played 5 important games this summer and has been good or great in 4 of them so it isn't a disaster.

About your points:
1) To me, the coaching has been very good so far. Props to Collet.
2) The lack of shooting makes things harder on the offensive end for the team. Sometimes the team also goes in "let's watch TP plays" mode. TP and the rest of the team are both responsible for that.
3) Defense has been quite good so far. There have been some weak areas in some games but overall I've liked their defense.

[DPG21920]

Yes, they move so much better on defense than offense, it is strange. I just sometimes see them as ineffective. You see random teams lighting them up from 3 point land and such.

They do lack shooting, but it seems like either they stand and watch TP or they just try and dump it to Diaw and watch him. It is very predictable. It makes sense because Diaw and TP are their best offensive players, but they could be a little more creative and move the ball better.

But overall, I wonder why they can't bring the energy more often. I guess it is good they are playing well when they have to, but it is a mindset type thing.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by DPG21920

Yes, they move so much better on defense than offense, it is strange. I just sometimes see them as ineffective. You see random teams lighting them up from 3 point land and such.

They do lack shooting, but it seems like either they stand and watch TP or they just try and dump it to Diaw and watch him. It is very predictable. It makes sense because Diaw and TP are their best offensive players, but they could be a little more creative and move the ball better.

But overall, I wonder why they can't bring the energy more often. I guess it is good they are playing well when they have to, but it is a mindset type thing.

I guess you have only watch the game in Belgium to draw these conclusions. In most of the games, the ball movement and the offensive creativity have been good.

[DPG21920]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I guess you have only watch the game in Belgium to draw these conclusions. In most of the games, the ball movement and the offensive creativity have been good.

I have watched about 3 games. I am not saying it is always poor, they just go through spurts where things stagnate.

I watched Finland, Italy and Belgium IIRC.

[will_spurs]

Originally Posted by DPG21920

Man, Bruno does this type of game make you shake your head at the FNT when you see them play down to the level of their opponent and lose to them earlier?

Don't ask me why, but it's a trademark of French national teams, even in other sports. In Rugby we regularly beat New Zealand (arguably the best team on the planet) to move on to be beaten by an average team. In football we can kick Brazil's ass, and draw against Liechstenstein. For whatever reason French national teams play better against tougher opponents.

It's also not recently unprecedented in basketball, the Spurs are well known to lose Game 1 of first round playoffs series - as in, wake us up when it's the WCF already (ok, the Spurs are a bit better than the French NT but I guess you see my point anyway).

[Manufan909]

So any new theories why Ian isn't getting much PT? What was his line for this game?

[tomtom]

Yeah, is there a boxscore around ?

[timaios]

Originally Posted by tomtom

Yeah, is there a boxscore around ?

http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/cid...378-1-B-2.html

[angelbelow]

Originally Posted by Manufan909

So any new theories why Ian isn't getting much PT? What was his line for this game?

Hopefully its just cause hes relatively new to the team and the coach is being more loyal to the big men that were already there.

[tomtom]

Originally Posted by timaios

http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/cid...378-1-B-2.html

Thanks nice to see Nando and Batum doing pretty well. Hope Ian gets some more play in the next few games