PARIS (The Friday Eurovision) - So France have handed the national team reins back to Michel Gomez, a 56-year-old coach who led the team from 1993-95 and guided them to a hugely impressive eighth-place finish at EuroBasket 1995.

Michel, I gotta be honest, I know very little about you.

What I do know is that France's men were the big underachievers for 2007 and, sorry Claude Bergeaud, the buck stopped with you as coach.

We know Gomez is now in charge.

What we don't know is this:

Was French playing great Antoine Rigaudeau ever a serious candidate?

If so, did he really want the job?

Thirdly, will someone from the federation tell us exactly why he didn't get the job?

Fourthly, Antoine, are you mad?

Look at the video interview I had with Rigaudeau at last year's Euroleague Final Four. This was done, of course, a few months before the EuroBasket in Spain.

Even in that interview, Rigaudeau never wanted to give too much away about his coaching aspirations.

Anyway, in the hiring process, I guess employers don't share too many details with the general public about why 'candidates' are passed over, but when it comes to France, it's liberté, égalité, fraternité.

Come on! We basketball fans want to know why Antoine didn't get the job.

Even Gomez sounds like he wants to know.

"I was surprised because everybody had gone for Antoine Rigaudeau from the start," Gomez said.

"It was a massive surprise, I thought it was Christmas - it is a late present."

As the real goats of last year's EuroBasket, and having seen Tony Parker's reaction to hard comments by France basketball analyst George Eddy in a television interview after the failure, I've got to write this.

Parker dissed Eddy because he hadn't played in the NBA, thus questioning his right to offer any sort of critical analysis.

Well, Eddy knew this, and so do I and everyone else that was in Spain.

We read about how great Tony Parker is, as well as Boris Diaw (in the NBA), but they flop big style in Madrid.

Remember that episode in Desperate Housewives where Eva Longoria tosses her husband, the mayor, overboard?

I'm surprised she didn't toss Tony overboard after France's showing in Madrid. They self-destructed at the foul line in their quarter-final against Russia but even worse, played like lambs in the battle for seventh place against Slovenia.

That humiliation prevented Les Bleus from taking part in this summer's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

France, you may have the NBA Finals MVP on your team and others who ply their trade in the glamorous league across the pond, but NBA has a new meaning in France now, at least for this summer, and that is this: NO BASKETBALL ANYMORE.

Hopefully with the appointment of Gomez, good times will return.

Antoine Rigaudeau, what do you think?

FIBA