"We're reaching the end of a cycle, we have to rebuild something": the HTV president is already showing his ambitions

Five opening defeats, six to finish. Despite these black holes, Hyères-Toulon, 18th out of 20, managed to stay up for its return to Pro B. The only realistic objective, with a limited budget, casting errors (Nweke, Sackey, Ndiaye), injuries (Eugene, Cleary) or a change of coach. "I find it hard to be satisfied with staying up, but the season was more complicated than I expected," confides president Mathieu Perrymond. The assessment oscillates "between relief and satisfaction of a job well done, because the bar was very high."

What matches do you remember from this exhausting season?

On the positive side, the victories against the big teams, notably Blois (85-82, March 21) . This made me relive the emotions of last year and showed that this team was capable of doing it. On the negative side, the defeats in direct confrontations: in Évreux on a real injustice (72-71, December 20 on a buzzer beater "that should never have been awarded") or in Chartres (68-66, January 17) , terrible on the state of mind that I see on the field.

What would you do differently to avoid repeating mistakes?

Last summer, we focused a lot on the specifications and the administrative side. We put enormous pressure on ourselves to appear good students. And we neglected the athletic side. We focused on winning, but we needed to focus more time on recruiting and recreating a team with a certain mindset.

How are you going about it today?

We work with traditional methods and data . We developed a proprietary—and secret—statistical tool that allows us to combine American and European statistical methods. We come up with ratings that are a bit different from what's usually done. The idea is to go beyond individual stats and simulate collective performances. To project what the five players could do together.

Will the squad change a lot (read elsewhere) ?

We're reaching the end of a cycle where we need to rebuild something. There are three players left under contract (Mathis Keita, Maxim Eugene, and Nikola Knezevic). The priority is to extend Moses Greenwood's contract, who has an exemplary mindset and is in demand. As for Quentin Losser, I would have liked to keep him, but I'm so happy for him, for his progress (the pivot has activated his exit clause and is announced at Dijon, in Elite) ... On the other hand, we need to build a strong 1-5 axis. And an athletic team to meet the standards of Pro B.

What about the coach, Stéphane Dumas?

He fulfilled his contract with the maintenance. I have no reason to have made him take the risk of coming to now look for another track. He has a chance to settle in Pro B and show what he can do (a two-year contract is on the table, Ed.) . I like his state of mind and he gets along well with Gaëtan (Etienne), who is part of the club and will always be his assistant.

Did his ratio (2 wins - 9 losses) make you doubt?

No. You have to put it into perspective because in this series, we faced a lot of big teams or teams that had a real chance to play for, like Évreux, who came to us to try to stay up even though we had already secured it.

The decision to separate from Jean-Louis Borg in March...

It was obviously very hard to take, but I think it was the right thing to do at the time. I have respect for the man, for the coach, one of the greatest French coaches. I know how much HTV and basketball owe him. He couldn't end his career with relegation either. He will always have a place at the club.