With a smile, Jean-Pierre Siutat stated the obvious. “There is still a southwestern network here”said the president of the French Basketball Federation (FFBB), on September 25, during the press conference to present Frédéric Fauthoux, new coach of the Bleus.
At 51 years old, the latter begins his mandate, on Thursday, November 21, with a trip to Cyprus as part of the qualification for Euro 2025 (at 6 p.m., on the DAZN platform). And with the former international leader (47 caps) at the helm, the French men’s basketball team takes on a serious southwestern accent. More specifically, a small corner located between Chalosse (Landes) and Béarn (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).
Player, the boy from Horsarrieu, in the south of the Landes, was a man of only one club: Elan Béarnais Pau-Orthez (later converted into Pau-Lacq-Orthez), bastion of French basketball between the years 1980 and 2000. A In the early 2000s, the leader played alongside Boris Diaw, before the former captain of Les Bleus, now general director of the French team. –, does not cross the Atlantic to the NBA. It is also in this club, in the “Almost identical playing culture from professionals to young people,” who trained as a coach once he put away his sneakers.
After his appointment, replacing Vincent Collet with fifteen years in office and eight medals in fourteen international competitions, “Petitou” – his nickname when he played, in relation to his height of 1.80 metres, which according to him was quite far from “this forest of giants” basketball – he immediately checked the name of Laurent Vila to assist him. “It was my prioritythe Landes coach insisted this week, in a cross interview on the site BeBasket. A no-brainer. If I had the honor and opportunity to get this position, I would definitely do it with Laurent. »
Because if, at 49 years old, the current coach of Strasbourg, in the French championship (Betclic Elite), has a solid resume, the connection between the two goes back a long time. “When I started, when I was a coach of the youngest Pau-Nord-Est [où évoluent les jeunes sections paloises]“He was in charge of the Elan Béarnais training center and we already had conversations about basketball in general.”explained Frédéric Fauthoux during his inauguration.
“Establish a strong culture”
French basketball has long had the accent of the broad southwest. President Jean-Pierre Siutat, who will not stand for re-election in December’s federal election, trained at the head of the Tarbes women’s club, and Patrick Beesley, the long-time national technical director, explored the Landes region of the that Frédéric Fauthoux came out. arrives.
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