After winning against Canada, the Lebanese Basketball team lost to the French team convincingly 86 to 59. Our weak point today, as i had pointed it out few days ago, was our inside play and our rebound capability. We only had two centers and none were able to contain the French inside game. French players were very physical as well and dominated the box. Added to that, this new coach made the stupidest changes i’ve ever seen.

In the second quarter, as soon as Vroman sat on the bench, the French led a 10-0 run and kept it until the last quarter. He never asked for any time out to stop the French run.

In the third quarter, he chose to rest Fadi el Khatib, Elias Rustom, Rony Fahd and at some point Matt Frayge. We were down by 14 points for God’s sake! How do you put all your key players out? Or maybe he had hoped Ghaleb Rida and Ali Kanaan would make some difference? Ghaleb sure helped the French open up the gap every time he spread his legs (don’t ask me why he does that) to shoot his failed 3 pointers. Ali barely caught a rebound and was outside the box most of the time.

Fourth quarter was a joke too. No fight backs by any Lebanese player and the coach seemed careless. I really don’t understand how we get ourselves to the world championships and not put out a decent fight? Is it too much to ask for the team and his coach to be enthusiastic and motivated?

Next game is on Tuesday against New Zealand on Tuesday at 4 pm. If Lebanon loses, he is out.

Check out here the full stats of the game.