When Maccabi Tel Aviv takes to the floor against ASVEL at Yad Eliyahu this evening, Freddy Fauthoux will be on the sidelines for the French club as TJ Parker’s assistant coach. Although the French club is out of the playoff picture with a record of 12-20 in 14th place, just behind Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad who are 13-18 in 13th.

The 48-year old joined Villeurbanne this season after manning the sidelines as the head coach of Metropolitans between 2015 and 2020. However, Fauthoux’s history in his country’s basketball is much deeper than just his time as a coach as he was the floor general for Pau Orthez for 17 years while having also been a stalwart for the France National Team from between 1997-2005. Sporting modest statistics in Euroleague play, Fauthoux ended his career with 4.7 points, 1 rebound and 1.7 assists per game in 81 appearances.

The last time he tipped off against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel was back on March 1, 2007 when Pau faced the Yellow & Blue in the Top 16 stage of the Euroleague in a game that was eventually won by the hosts 74-70. Neven Spahija’s squad was headlined by Derrick Sharp, Nikola Vujcic, Lior Eliyahu and Simas Jasiatis who needed a huge 4th quarter (24-14) to notch the comeback win. Fauthoux played only 4 minutes and went 0/1 from the floor in his final season as a professional player.

Spahija had this to say following the contest, ”I’m not happy about the way we played. We did a great job in the last quarter, but that’s not the basketball Maccabi should play. This isn’t acceptable basketball. Not for me, not for the fans and not for the management of Maccabi Tel Aviv. We played much better in the past. I know sometimes we need to pass this period, but for us it’s too much. We won and this is the only positive thing tonight. The problem was that the post-up game for Nikola didn’t work, but instead of playing around it, we forced it. Never in my 22 years experience in coaching have I seen such a big difference in a team’s performance between the practices and the games.”

On the other side of the court Pau’s coach Gordon Herbert also reflected on the clash, “We came here to win but I was pleased with our effort. We worked hard. My players made a great effort. We ran out of gas the last 3-4 minutes. Our goal was to reach the quarterfinals, which means we need to win the last 3 games. With this effort tonight we’re looking forward to that challenge. We wanted to keep the ball out of Vujcic’s hands, because he can make others better. He’s a great passer. Greer did a great job on him. Our trouble was we left Jasaitis twice open on the three-point line and he punished us and changed the game.”

Two weeks later, the two squads played once again this time in France and the result was once again close with this game begin decided in overtime as Maccabi came out on top 98-94. Fauthoux yet again played 4 minutes and didn’t take a shot while committing one turnover.

This time, the veteran spoke fowling the game, his last home Euroleague game in his illustrious career, ”It is hard to come back after being down in the score during most of the game and facing a team with great experience in such situations. We lost by 4 points in Tel Aviv and after overtime in Pau… That means we were not far from the quarterfinals. Now, our aim must be based on the French League, in order to get a Euroleague ticket for next season to repeat such exciting games.”

Unfortunately, that was the last time Pau featured in the top continental competition as they finished in 9th place in the French league which was just outside of the playoff picture and had to settle for the following campaign in the ULEB Cup.

As ASVEL continues to write its own European history, Fauthoux will definitely be an integral part of its future as he dips into his own past experiences.