The French male basketball team is about to take a little jump in the unknown. A year after winning the silver medal at the Paris Olympic Games, the Blues are preparing to play the Euro with a more experimental group. In Latvia, Finland, Poland or in Cyprus – a country welcoming the competition from August 27 to September 14 -, the staff of coach Frédéric Faux will be based on a unscruized collective of his stars, whose composition was given on Sunday, August 17.
In particular, Nicolas Batum and Nando de Colo, who have taken their international retirement will be missed, who have taken their international retirement after the Olympic epic. The Blues will not be able to rely on Victor Wembanyama either, who is always recovering from a deep venous thrombosis on the right shoulder who prevented him from playing since February, nor from Evan Fournier, hit in the ankle. Rudy Gobert is also forfeited, the pivot preferring to focus on the preparation of the NBA season with his Minnesota Timberwolves franchise.
The absences of the two giants Wembanyama and Gobert had already considerably weakened the inner sector of the Blues. And the bad news has not stopped there for Frédéric Faith, who will also have to do without Vincent Poirier, injured in the knee. The French team will go to Katowice (Poland), where she will play on Belgium her first game in the preliminary tour on August 28, with a single professional pivot, Mam Jaiteh (2.08 m).
NBA rookies make their start
In any case, the absences planned or not open the way for a new generation. She is embodied this summer by Zaccharie Risacher (20, 2.03 m) and Alexandre Sarr (20 years, 2.13 m), respectively selected at the first and second position during the NBA 2024 Draft, the annual Grand Lottery of the North American League.
They will each compete in their first international competition with the “big” and will notably be supervised by some regulars such as Guerschon Yabusele or Isaïa Cordinier, both present in Paris during the last Olympic Games. All these beautiful people have in any case started their preparation, beating Spain twice. On Saturday, the Blues even offered themselves a crazy comeback by overcoming their best enemies, in Bercy, after being led 28 to 44 at halftime (78-73 final score).
The twelve French selected for the euro:
Leaders/rear: Matthew Strazel (23 years, 1.82 m), Sylvain Francisco (27 years, 1.79 m).
AILLEIERS: Bilal Coulibaly (21, 2.03 m), Timothée Luwawu-Cabarrot (30, 2.01 m), Zaccharie Risacher (20, 2.03 m)
Interiors: Jaylen Hoard (26 ANS, 2.04 m), Mam Jaiteh (30 ANS, 2.08 m), Alexandre Sarr (20 ANS, 2.13), Guerschon Yabusele (29 ANS, 2.03 m)
