Having Holston and Kelly as the faces of the team
It’s always important when you know the players you’re signing and you know the reason why you’re signing them. When you watch the French League on TV, you don’t understand the real quality of the other teams so well. This year, seven or eight teams have invested 30 or 40 percent more than last year. So, Dijon is right now around 10th place, considering the team budget.
Losing Alex Chassang and Axel Julien, who is now in Bourg, was a big blow to the team because, in the French League, it’s very difficult to make substitutions of domestic players with the foreign players, you’re always 1-2 players short. And Dijon is not a top club to recruit the best French players. So, having players like Rashard Kelly who has played for me, it’s much easier, or when you have high-level professionals like David Holston, it makes a coach’s life easier, for sure. You still need to have good players around them, but these two were important, especially in the BCL games.
The rise of Robin Ducote
I always try to have some of the domestic players involved to have a big rotation, especially in a club like Dijon which has some guys that can help. Robin is just 20 years old who has played last year because the club had problems with injuries. He played because of that, not because somebody was thinking of him as a prospect.
When the people from Dijon called me, they still hadn’t finished the league. Their ex-coach decided in March that he was going to leave. They recruited a new coach, but he didn’t want to continue after two months. So, I started following the games. In late May and early June, when they were still in the playoffs, I was watching the games and I said ‘I like this kid’. He shoots fast; he’s very quick on the court; he plays good defense.
They had something else on their mind at the moment, wanted to sign another guy, and weren’t sure to sign a professional contract with this kid. I said let’s make him stay. First of all, he’s from Dijon. They realized it and that they have nothing to lose with signing him. When I came, he got called to the U20 French NT. I guess this experience in the summer helped him to get a little more confidence.
And I started putting him in the starting five in preseason games to see what he can do. I realized that he’s a great athlete and has a great shot from coming off the screens, spot-ups. He’s explosive. He’s playing well; he’s tough. He has had ups and downs, but to have a domestic player who is also from the academy and costs the club a small amount of money is always a plus.