PARIS (France) – When most people think about the French men’s basketball national team, they remember the great players over the past decade and a half – stars like Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Ronny Turiaf, Florent Pietrus, Joffrey Lauvergne, Nando De Colo and Frank Ntilikina among others. And of course, now, Victor Wembanyama.

While those players span the life of France’s long run of sustained continental and global success, the man responsible for those results doesn’t always get much credit.

But it doesn’t seem that Vincent Collet minds that much. All he wants is to win games.

And France latest win, a true upset against heavy-favorite Canada, was all his. “It was the ‘Collet game'”, said France Captain Nicolas Batum. “This win is his.”

The 61-year-old playcaller and his team are a victory over Germany in the Semi-Finals from winning back-to-back Olympic medals. And that in front of the home fans in Paris – a message Collet made sure his team knew ahead of their big Quarter-Finals win over Canada.

“I didn’t even talk about basketball,” Collet told the L’Equipe in the mixed zone after the game about his message to the team before the Canada game. “I went back to my inaugural speech at the start of the camp. I reminded the players what the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games at home meant in a career and in a life. This moment, we couldn’t let it pass.

“We were capable of making it even though up to that point we had missed many things. We lost games, we fell below expectations. But despite everything, we made it to the Quarter-Finals. I told them that everything we had been through together for the past month should help us overcome this obstacle. The path was there.”

The 35-year-old Nicolas Batum was moved by what Collet said.

“Vincent gave one of the best speeches I ever heard. He has this gift to say certain things to get the troops fired up. He did it again tonight,” Batum said after the 82-73 victory.

Batum has known Collet since he was 15 years old as Collet was his first coach in Le Mans in 2006. The two also have been companions for many years with the French national team. Actually, Batum has been on Collet’s side ever since he was named France coach in March 2009.

The then 45-year-old Collet, who was an assistant on the national team coaching staff in 2002-03, came in as one of the top coaches in his country having been coaching at ASVEL. During his time with Le Mans from 2000 to 2008, he was voted French Coach of the Year three times (2001, 2004 and 2006).

The native of Sainte-Adresse in Normandy in northern France was handed the reins ahead of the Additional Qualifying Round for FIBA EuroBasket 2009. The French team had a massively disappointing eighth place finish at the FIBA EuroBasket 2007, which prevented them from taking part in the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens and therefore forcing them into qualifying for EuroBasket 2009.

Collet got the France team to the continental tournament in Poland and went undefeated in the two group stages until losing to eventual champions Spain in the Quarter-Finals.

That marked the beginning a long run of sustained success.

Under Collet, France won 7 medals. Olympic silver in 2021, bronze medals at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2014 and 2019. He led France to the country’s only major title at the FIBA EuroBasket 2013. Collet also guided France to second-place EuroBasket finishes in 2011 and 2022 and third in 2015.

After Canada’s game in the Quarter-Finals, Collet has now coached 251 games with the National Team, achieving 178 wins. Both numbers are France all-time highs. He also holds for France the record for the most wins at EuroBasket, the World Cup, and the Olympics 15 wins in 22 games).

Despite all that success, Collet really came under fire last summer after France crashed out of the First Round of the FIBA World Cup, failing to even reach the Second Round despite having players on hand like Batum, Evan Fournier, Rudy Gobert and Nando De Colo. France ended up finishing 18th – the country’s worst result in a major tournament in history.

French Basketball Federation supremo Jean-Pierre Siutat in October 2023 gave Collet his vote of confidence and announced that the federation had decided to stick with the coach for the 2024 Olympics.

Critics said Collet’s lack of charisma overshadowed his reputation as a masterful tactician. Sure, you will not see Collet get all emotional and scream on the sidelines, but you can rest assured he will find a way to lead his team to a win.

Collet outcoached his Canadian counterpart Jordi Fernandez in the Quarter-Finals with some believing the French win was on par with the two games France played against United States at the 2021 Olympics – a victory in the group stage and a five-point loss in the Gold Medal Game.

Though, of course, Collet will react to such suggestions with humbleness and modesty. When asked if the win over Canada was one of his best tactical games:

“I’m always uncomfortable with that because before the tactics, it’s our heart and our state of mind that are primarily responsible for this victory. We had obviously prepared some things. But well, we had also prepared some things on Friday (against Germany) and we saw the result (he laughs)!” referring to an 85-71 loss in the final game of group play.

“The problem is also the commitment with which we execute things. This is also why we have hope for Thursday’s match against Germany in the Semi-Finals. I could compare this success to the one achieved in the Quarter-Finals of the 2014 World Cup against Spain.”

Still, Collet came up with some tactical changes that certainly worked – starting Isaia Cordinier for the first time; leaving Rudy Gobert on the bench and letting Victor Wembanyama begin at center; and feeding the ball inside to the likes of strong big men Guerschon Yabusele and Mathias Lessort.

“Honestly, I’m not going to boast. I didn’t expect Isaia to go 4/4 on three-pointers. We put him in the starting five to elevate our defensive level, as at the start of preparation. That seemed very important to me. Putting Guerschon (Yabusele) in place of Rudy (Gobert) was already decided before (Gobert) hurt his finger. The idea was for Victor to start the game at the pivot, especially since Canada left (Dillion) Brooks on him. This also provided more space for Guerschon,” he explained.

Collet also brought up France’s embarrassing 95-65 loss to Canada at last year’s FIBA World Cup and how that affected his lineup choices.

“It’s important to remember that even during last year’s debacle in the first round of the World Cup, Mathias had a superb first half. He made the Canadian paint suffer again,” the coach said of Lessort, who scored 13 points against Canada after totaling 15 points in the first three games of the Olympics.

Collet also praised his team’s commitment at the defensive end against Canada in the Quarter-Finals.

“Overall, our defense was incredible and shut down their individual players. We were two against one everywhere. There was a selflessness from the players and a level of commitment that we will need to reproduce,” he said looking ahead to the Semi-Finals against Germany.

“I love my team. It has talent, but it doesn’t have more than Canada, Germany, or the United States.”

If France can beat Germany and once again reach the Olympic Gold Medal Game, most people will probably remember the likes of Wembanyama, Fournier, Batum or whomever steps up.

Few will remember Vincent Collet. But that is nothing new for one of the most successful European coaches in history.

FIBA