France will host the Senior Women Basketball European Championship in 2013. France became European Champions for the second time in their history during the 2009 edition of EuroBasket in Latvia.
France hosted the tournament in 2001 and won the trophy for the first time with the following players:
Laure Savasta, Sandra Le Dréan, Catherine Melain, Edwige Lawson, Yannick Souvré, Audrey Sauret-Gillespie, Nathalie Lesdema, Sandra Dijon, Dominique Tonnerre, Isabelle Fijalkowski, Laétitia Moussard, Nicole Antibe
A lot has changed in French Basketball over the last 12 months, The second division has now became officially professional and has been repackaged as LF2.
All the clubs in this division must have a basketball Academy and for the current season have three players under 23 on the team sheet for each game For this season the division will have 16 teams, from 2011-2012 this will be reduced to 14 teams.
The whole basketball pyramid has changed for the women's game with the introduction of a u20 championship for the clubs in the LFB.
For current news in English on the first division just following this link LFB
For the current news in English about the latest stores about the second division just follow this link LF2
I cannot remember the last time Bourges Basket lost back to back games in the LFB.
A defeat in overtime (81-84) against Arras at home during the weekend was followed by a road defeat against Aix-en-Provence (62-56).
With just two weeks before the EuroLeague starts, all is not rosy for Pierre Vincent and his troops.
At the moment Arras, Mondeville and Tarbes are the pace setters with the 3 wins each.
Lindsey Taylor who is one of the tallest players in women's basketball is leading the scoring charts with 21 points per match at the moment. She is playing for Nantes-Rezé who are 1 and 2 for the season
The new season in France has already started.
A review of the LFB rosters can be located here: Part 1 and Part 2
Bourges Basket and Tarbes are already setting the pace after two rounds of games.
The new season has already started for NF1 and you can read previews in English or in French by visiting these sites:
English Review
French Review
Both reviews are interesting, the French website has been around for 7 years now and the writer of the review has become a specialist in this division. This site is the number one site in France concerning women's basketball.
The English site which is not a year old is also very good, the approach is different to the French language site. For the Bilingual readers the two sites are a must read as they are not are not translations of each other.
Both sites are almost in agreement as they mention 5 sides that should challenge for the title Armentières, Charleville-Mézières, Dunkerque, Limoges and Toulouse. The French website also included Strasbourg ABC as a title contender.
The NF1 is very long, 30 weeks to be exact and the season has already started
SI Graffenstaden - Limoges 64 51
Charleville - Ifs 79 78
Colomiers - Laveyron 81 73
Pleyber Christ - Armentières 75 81
Dunkerque - Voiron 75 61
Nice -Toulouse 69 75
CFBB - La Roche 54 81
Rennes -Strasbourg ABC 61 72
Limoges on of the teams expected to do well this season went down on the road to 2008 NF2 champions in the surprise result of the weekend.
Bourges Basket continue to progress in Europe with a first leg victory against Fenerbahce(85-69).
Cappie Pondexter scored 23 point for the team from Turkey, but this was not enough trouble a well balanced Bourges attack. Sonja Kireta led the Bourges attack with 19 points, Endeme Miyem chipped in 16 points and Australian international Belinda Snell scored 14 points.
In the other ties:
CSKA Moscow lost for the very first time this season to
Ekaterinburg (74-81), while Spartak Moscow downed Dynamo Moscow (96-67). In the final match Ros Casares got the better of Gambrinus Sika Brno(71-63).
The second games in the series will be played this Friday
Pierre Vincent is 43 years old and has been involved in basketball for the past twenty years. Before coming to Bourges in 2003 he did most of his work for the Federation with National youth teams. He also spent three years training a club in the equivalent of the fifth division for men (NM3).
Before his success with Bourges he greatest achievement was with the the U18 men during the 2000 European Championship. France won the title and a number of players from that group are today playing in the NBA.
His first task ash head coach is qualify for Eurobasket 2009. The draw will take place this coming weekend in Italy.
He will still remain as head coach at Bourges.
