Something new with the Blues. If he had summoned a group of 12 players from the start for the World Cup (August 25-September 10), Vincent Collet was forced to make a change along the way and wait for the green light concerning another element. The package is that of the leader Frank Ntilikina, hit in the thigh in Lithuania and replaced by… a rear, Isaïa Cordinier, for whom this will be the first appearance in a major competition. Aged 26, the Bologna player had already worn the France team jersey 19 times before joining the group in Japan, for the last two friendly matches (88-70 victory against Japan and 74- 78 against Australia) face and the last phase of the preparation. “He had made the two previous preparations, before the Tokyo Olympics or the Euro last year. He is not unknown to this group”, underlines coach Collet, who however says he is “impressed by the speed with which he melted into the mould”.
And the coach to add: “It’s good news, especially since Frank was gaining thickness before getting injured… Very quickly, he put on the costume. With quite a bit of success so far. What he has produced in these two matches and in training is very reassuring. Why not a point guard instead of Ntilikina? “There weren’t many suitors. And we didn’t want to change what we had imagined at the start of the campaign, for example with a return of Andrew Albicy, already in relation to the presence of Sylvain Francisco. Rather, we wanted a versatile player who could help on the ball ascents, explains the Norman technician, a few days before the duel against Canada in Jakarta. Frank was mostly used alongside Elie Okobo. There will be somewhat identical devices. Isaïa is quite tall (1.97m), athletic, he has a real contribution in areas such as rebounding and defense, that’s what we were looking for, a bit like the things that Frank had brought us since the start of the prep. .”
Mathias Lessort, he has not yet had the opportunity to bring anything. Author of a brilliant season with Partizan Belgrade, the new Panathinaikos player has been out of preparation since the start of his training due to an ankle injury. Yoan Makoundou took over as interim. Vincent Poirier was even called in case in Japan. But the staff still hoped for good news about Lessort, 27 years old and 29 selections, member of the France team bronze medalist at the last World Cup. She finally arrived last weekend. “We consider that he has qualities that we do not necessarily have in the group and that he is complementary to our other interiors”, analyzes Vincent Collet.
It remains to be seen when Lessort will actually be operational. “He was in pure rehabilitation for the first 15 days of prep, he then started re-athletics, then basketball for a week. He has even trained collectively in recent days, says Collet. He is already in Jakarta. We will see him tomorrow evening (Tuesday) and we will have a first big training session on Wednesday in Indonesia. The goal is to use it on Friday (against Canada). We consider that he has qualities that we don’t necessarily have in the group and that he complements our other interiors. I hope I can use it. There is no guarantee. We’ll have to see how it goes on Wednesday. But we won’t necessarily wait for the Latvia match, ”smiles Collet mischievously, recalling that the person concerned is “a strong rebounder”. That’s good: the Blues have significant deficiencies in this area… “But there were glimpsed efforts (Sunday against Australia)”, slips Collet. And to conclude: “We hope the same thing with Mathias (as with Isaïa), even if he was not there from the beginning”. The countdown is on by Friday.