Today starts the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Minsk, Belarus. Among the teams expected to make a long run in the competition are the reigning U16 European Champions: France. Their shooting guard star Zoé Wadoux who made the All-Tournament Team last summer and multiple medallist head coach Arnaud Guppillotte kindly took some time during Rezé Basket International tournament to answer some of my questions ahead of the competition.

Zoé Wadoux, Shooting Guard

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What is your state of mind ahead of this World Cup?

We are in a conquering state of mind. We come into the tournament with the will to remember fully all that happened last summer at the European Championship: the good and the bad. We of course want to reproduce things that worked well for us but in the same time we don’t plan on being amnesiac with what didn’t. The idea is to face the mishaps and dysfonctionments of last summer and correct them this time out in order to be able to conquer the world.

That means you’re ambitious?

Yes but we know we need to put as many things as possible on our side for that, like making sure we rest well between the games, that the daily chemistry within the group is fine, that the team’s flow on the court is happening. It’s gonna take all these elements to help us reach our ambitions.

How is the preparation going?

Better and better. We start to really get along within the group, to know each better, to enjoy to play together and that is very important. On the court we’re finding the right player at the right time now, we are producing intense quality defense which is key for us, we’re able to run fast in transition.. We’re on course to create really nice things but we still crave for more and better.

In the locker room what do you tell each other?

Clearly we want to be World Champions. That’s our mindset. Then we’re aware much can happen. Like last summer, in the preparation we had some injuries so we know that on the straight and beautiful road we pave for ourselves some turns can quickly appear. We need to be able to adapt. We know what we want but then we can’t control what’s gonna happen.

And the coaches? What do they tell you?

The same thing. Basically it’s our project, the players’, and they join us in it. They engage on the journey with us but it’s really our project and it’s up to us to do it. They’re here as facilitators for us to reach our goal, to make things easier for us. They’re here to boost us when we’re a bit down. The good thing with our coaching staff is that we really get along well, on and off the court, so we have a great chemistry together. They don’t only make their presence felt when we’re down but also when things go well. We share a lot together and there is a big trust and unity between us. It makes the communication easier. I feel free to go talk with them when something is not going my way and they find the right words for the situation.

What are your team’s strong points?.

The trust among each other! We’re solid as a team. The desire to do great things, we’re really ambitious, that’s one of our very strong point. But we are also very persevering and altruist.

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The weak points?

I wouldn’t say weak point but we need to make sure everybody is on the same track and finds the others well on the court. Potentially if communication is not totally correct, it could create some errors but it shouldn’t really be a factor as preparation goes on.

Compared to the team that won gold last summer you are incorporating some new players (Ewodo, Guennoc, Mahoutou, Yale) this year…

Ewodo was with us last year and was one of the players who got injured right before the tournament. We’re quite a mature group so we take the newcomers with us on our path and make sure they’re incorporated properly. Of course it is a sports adventure but based on human relationships. The connections and links we create through sport are huge. Like with the girls with whom we won the championship last year, when we meet during the season in gyms or on the street we have this special connection now. We’re aware and remember what we achieved together and it’s very special. So we stress the fact that we’re all in together in this project because we want to be a solid block, we don’t want to have holes.

2010, 1st U17 World Cup, in France, France finished second, is it on your mind? Do you talk about it? Is it a source of motivation for you?

Yes! Of course yes! We want to do better. We were talking about it with the girls today at lunch that no French team ever, men or women, boys or girls has ever finished on top of the podium of a World Cup. They were always dominated, particularly by the USA. I might repeat myself but we’re an ambitious generation and we don’t plan on being walked over like that. It’s rather us who walk over the others. And if somebody intends to walk over us it won’t be an easy task.

On an individual level, what does it represent for you to be playing at a World Cup? What are your own ambitions?

It is a dream! It’s really something I wanted to achieve. Another dream would be the Olympic Games but that’s another story for now. As far as personal ambitions are concerned, I’m really here for my team so I don’t come here thinking about anything personal. If ever some individual awards come my way of course I will be happy and will take them but I’m here to do anything my team needs to succeed and win.

Arnaud Guppillotte, Head Coach

What is the team’s state of mind ahead of this World Cup?

For the moment it’s very good. We are on track: we set our goals and know how we want to reach them in terms of performances, schedule etc. The girls are very mature and responsive. We’re in a constructive and conquering state of mind. It is very interesting to work with this generation with this sort of maturity. We have leaders on the team who carry the group from within and who are perfect bridging on and off the court. We have very little things to take care of from a behaviour point of view. From a group building dynamic this is a crucial quality. When you have to spend time and energy on dealing with attitude issues it means that the girls don’t know why they are here. In our case we can really focus on performances because that’s what the girls have as common determination. What does to perform mean for us? It means to optimize what we have. Then if we lose to some other team knowing that we have done close to everything we could do, that’s sport. Our goal is high because we feel we have an optimal potentiality to succeed at this World Cup. We feel we can, it doesn’t mean we will. The girls must want it and must decide they can do it. We, the coaching staff, will have to make the right decisions in terms of roster, plays, tactical aspects and the girls will need to make it theirs and execute it, not perfectly, but the best way possible.

How do you explain the strength and level of this group?

Their personalities and their basketball culture. We have a lot of players whose parents were professional players or coaches. When you’re familiar with the gym, the sound of a basketball from birth, that you’ve watched your father or your mother play or coach, the culture of basketball is in your DNA. It’s not something you can explain, invent or create. You have it or you don’t. And when you have it, you must just take the most out of it. And we have a lot players in this case: Rupert, Fauthoux, Chéry, Ewodo for example and I’m sure I’m forgetting some others. Even Wadoux has always been in a basketball environment and has been coached by the parents of Nando De Colo (former San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors, Euroleague winner & MVP, Final 4 MVP with CSKA Moscow). So we have this deep and strong basketball culture on the one hand, and on the other hand they have strong personalities. They have the right balance of being somehow crazy, but in a good way, and very grounded. Plus they’re super easy to be with even though you know you have a real person in front of you. They can be quick on the draw but it’s more interesting to be with players who have substance and know what they want than to struggle to get something out of them. It’s not always easy to manage because there can be some ego issues at times but I prefer that to having to create a will. So even before being basketball players they are strong and interesting human beings. Then they’re real basketball players in their own right.

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So what’s the difficult part about coaching them?

To have them share the ball… There’s only one ball for five! We have 7-8 players out of twelve who could be in any other teams’ starting five so the whole challenge for us is to create the right hierarchy in which players, who are used at club level to be leaders and stars, accept different parts without losing efficiency. Finding the right mix between leadership and role players. We had the same situation last year. Our role is to succeed that while avoiding any sort of frustration from some players who might feel they can do the same. But in the same time it’s a fine balance because you don’t want your role players to forget to play sometimes for themselves either.. If you want I could compare my position with a car mechanic. Sometimes you really have to do it all, fix the engine fully and check all parts of it, but in this case I’m more like a Formula 1 mechanic with high end processors who needs to make precise but subtle settings, changes. It’s real goldsmithing. It’s quite nice a situation I must say. But still you have to be very careful because in a Formula 1 the tiniest mistake costs greatly. So we have to be really attentive to their behaviour, to any potential frustration, to which players combination works better together, etc. I remain humble though. I’m neither optimistic, nor am I pessimistic, just realistic. I know other countries put in a lot of work as well but if we take care of our part, we won’t have to worry so much about the others.

What are the official ambitions for France?

We won’t delude ourselves. When you play a competition it is to win it. We’re European champions. It’s not as if we had finished 3rd or something where we would know there’s a few countries ahead of us. In this case there’s the other continental champions Australia, the USA + the runner-ups Canada, Japan, not forgetting Spain who will arrive with a sense of revenge and Hungary who is never easy to play.

Is the lost final in 2010 something you think about? Does it give you extra motivation?

I think about it yes of course! I was the coach of the French team then. I have a lot of regrets about it. That US team was really strong and maybe impossible to beat but I didn’t do my job properly. For us by reaching the final, we already were the champions of the rest of the world. Subconsciously we were telling ourselves we couldn’t do it. That game really triggered something in my approach. Since then I cut with this diminishing mentality and set a new standard where our limits are only the ones we set ourselves, regardless of whom we face.

MERCI BEAUCOUP!