Biggest EuroBasket Success
2001. "Les filles en or", the golden ladies defeated their great Russian rivals at Antarès, Le Mans, in front of 6,000 fans to capture the 2001 EuroBasket title. It is without a doubt the best result ever for French women’s basketball and the climax of a generation coached by Alain Jardel. When the former coach of Mirande took over the team in 1997, the French squad had not qualified for the previous two EuroBaskets in 1995 and 1997. He built the legendary team around two key players in center Isabelle Fijalkowski (13.4 points and 6.4 rebounds a game) and point guard Yannick Souvré (7.4 points, 45.8% three-point shooting and 5.6 assists). Today, only four players from this team are still with Les Bleues: Edwige Lawson, Audrey Sauret, Sandra Le Dréan and Sandra Dijon.

Biggest EuroBasket Disaster
In the almost 20 years between 1978 and 1999, France only competed at the EuroBasket in once.  Other than that, it's hard to talk about failure because, every time the French

		Sandrine Gruda looks to be the future of French women's basketball.

national team has qualified for the EuroBasket, they have finished no worse than fifth. This was the case at the last two tournaments in 2003 and 2005 and each time the scenario has been a little harder to swallow for "Les Bleues." After a good and solid first round, Alain Jardel's players twice found Russia in the quarter-finals and each time the French suffered defeats. France found a way to win their last two games to finish in fifth place. It would be inappropriate to label this a disaster, but truly it was a disappointment.

Best Individual Performance/Best Player of All-Time
Isabelle Fijalkowski is the only dominant inside force that "Les Bleues" have had in recent history. She was selected to the national team 204 times, scoring a record 2562 points and averaging 12.6 points per game.  She had the size (1.95 m), the physical power and a magnificent low post technique combined with a smooth shooting touch to be a true threat on offense. Since her retirement, France has struggled a lot with an unbalanced game, lacking her presence in the paint, especially on the offensive end. The recent progress of Sandrine Gruda has allowed fans to dream that this problem might soon be a thing of the past.

Born in 1972 in Clermont-Ferrand, "Fija" started her professional career at 16 with her hometown club, Montferrand. She has been a pioneer for French players in many ways. In 1994 she became the first French player to cross the Atlantic to play basketball as she suited up for the University of Colorado. Three years later, she again made history as the first in France to play in a foreign country (wiith Cleveland in 1997 and with Come in Italy from 1997 - 2000).  She has won everything in Europe (EuroLeague Women with Bourges in 1995 and Valenciennes in 2000, five French and two Italian titles) and was part of the 2001 national team that won EuroBasket Women gold. She retired in 2002 and is now working for the French federation.

Scouting report
France is one of the best defensive teams in Europe and in the world too. After the loss against the USA in the second round of the last World Championship, the American coach Ann Donovan was surprised by the intensity and the physical abilities of France saying, “defensively, it is the best team I've seen so far. They played an excellent mix of full court defense, traps, and man-to-man in the half court. They did a great job of putting pressure on us, and even thought it was one of our priorities, we turned too many balls over."

The strength of France is the quickness and spirit of their outside players. The first requirement to be part of this team is to be able to stop the opponent. On top of that France has a great collective culture of helping each other.

On the other side of the court, it's a different story. Sandrine Gruda and Emilie Gomis provide more offensive talent to complement Sauret and Le Dréan. Still, the team remains very dependant on their transition game. In the half court, they lack a dominant post player and reliable shooters. As a result, sometimes, the team can go through long scoring droughts.

Likely Squad
The team that finished fifth at the last World Championship will be back. Nathalie Lesdema (33) retired from the team after more than 200 games, but no other player on the team is older than 30. Edwige Lawson, the point guard of CSKA Samara who has played in three consecutive EuroLeague Women Finals Fours between 2005 and 2007, should be back to lead the team. She will share the point with Céline Dumerc who has had a very convincing year with Bourges. Those two will form a very athletic duo, a major strength for the team. Commères will also count on the experience of Audrey Sauret, the soul of last year's team and their best passer, three-point shooter and a very charismatic player. She can play the point or the shooting guard. Sandra Le Dréan also has 10 years of playing experience with the national team and has been the starting small forward for a long time now. With her size and good perimeter shooting, she's an interesting match up, especially in the low post against smaller opponents. At the shooting guard position, Emilie Gomis, the best scorer for France last year, has definitely become indispensable to the team. Her quickness and ability to play one-on-one are crucial when the offense is struggling.

In the paint, Sandrine Gruda is the only player that can be a reliable threat in offense. A steady performer with Valenciennes, she will need to consistently bring at least 15 points to the table every night because her teammates inside are not likely to do so. Last year Elodie Godin, Emmeline Ndongue and Sandra Dijon were only scoring 10,3 points per game though all three can really secure the rebound and hold anybody on defense.  Gruda (20), Ndongue (24) and Godin (22) are very young players for such responsibilities at their position but all of them played a great role this year in the EuroLeague Women.

Prediction
In Brazil 2006 France finished second-best among European nations behind Russia. More telling, France were undefeated against all European nations. They beat Russia in the second round (74-64) and they won twice against EuroBasket Women 2005 champions Czech Republic. They also took down Baltic giants Lithuania. With no major losses in the roster and the return of Lawson, France is clearly aiming for a medal.

Last 10 FIBA events
Year Event Place Achievement
2006 World Championship Sao Paolo 5th
2005 EuroBasket Ankara 5th
2004 Olympics Athens Did not qualify
2003 EuroBasket Patras 5th
2002 World Championship Nanjing 8th
2001 EuroBasket Le Mans Gold Medal
2000 Olympics Sydney 5th
1999 EuroBasket Katowice Silver Medal
1998 World Championship Berlin Did not qualify
1997 EuroBasket Budapest Did not qualify

How did they qualify?
EuroBasket 2005
5th place Medal (6 W – 2 L)
Results
1st Round
Date Game Result
Sept-2nd 2005 Czech Republic b. France 65-45
Sept-3rd 2005 France b. Greece 71-56
Sept-4th 2005 France b. Latvia 67-50
Sept-6th 2005 France b. Poland 83-63
Sept-7th 2005 France b. Germany 79-48
Quarter-finals
Sept-9th 2005 Russia b. France 70-56
Semi-finals (5th to 8th place)
Sept-10th 2005 France b. Poland 73-71
5th place final
Sept-11th 2005 France b. Latvia 85-62