Bobcat Recruit Update: Marc-Antoine Bourgault

The Bobcats announced the signing of two players to letter of intents and two players who have chosen to walk-on. Three of the players were pretty much know quantities, but one was completely off the radar.

The Bobcats announced the signing of Frenchman Marco Bourgault today (5-07-09). Marco is more commonly known as on the net as Marc-Antoine or Marc. If you want to Google him I would highly recommend you do not forget the “r” in his last name. Some of the news reports with of the announcements (including mine) have omitted this, and it will make it difficult to find him. Anyone care to guess how I know this!?

I believe the Bobcat coaches first noticed Marc last summer when a he participated in a series of basketball tournaments in California for a special All-Star European AAU team put together by the 1 Dream Basketball Academy. The 1 Dream team spent 3-4 weeks in the United States last June and July playing in numerous AAU tourneys. Bourgault started at the off guard spot but also played a lot of time at point guard He averaged 13 points, 4 assist and 6 rebounds a game for the All Star team. For his French team –The Cholet Basketball Club- he averaged 16 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists this past winter. Bourgault has also played on numerous European and French teams over the past few years, but since I do not read French I can not really comment much on his play for those teams.

Bourgault biggest asset is as a shooter, where he has deep range and a very quick release. He is also strong enough to post up smaller or weaker guards. The Dream 1 promotes him as having “great athleticism” but I will take that with a certain grain of salt, but he is definitely a good athlete, Here is a short interview, I found on the net, with Marco.

Q & A With Marco
1)What is your dream in basketball?
My dream is to be the best player I can be and win a NBA Championship.

2)What is the difference between playing basketball in the United States and playing in France?
The American game is much faster and the players are more athletic. In France, we play more systematic and our team is very well organized.

3)What are the strengths of your game?
The strengths of my game is my shooting, how I see the game and my size and athleticism. I still need to work more on my defense and I can always practice more shooting.

4)Who is your favorite NBA Player?
Gilbert Arenas because at he beginning he was not very good and after a lot of practice and practice he‘ll became very good like he is today. He has got a very good shot, he can dunk and create many assists.

5)Who are you picking to win the 2009 NBA Championship?
San Antonio Spurs because they win all the 2 years, they’ve got 2 French players, they also have Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Mister Duncan who are great players. Their coach is also very good and they are like an European team.

6) What’s your family like?
I’ve got one sister my family adopted from Guatemala her name is Apolline she is 10. We also adopted a brother come from Colombia his name is Valentin he is 15 and he is a pretty good basketball player and good student. My parents are both great people and work hard everyday to give us a good life.

In a lot of ways Marco reminds me of current Bobcat Eric Rush. Both have the size and strength to play both wing spots but also have the skills to play the point. Granted Marco is a much better shooter than Eric, but Eric is in a league of his own as an athlete. It will be interesting to see how these two mesh next season. Marco will bring a lot of experience playing against older and a high level of European talent, and has the offensive skills to make an impact next year, but will really need to put time in on developing his defensive skills if he is to thrive in Huse’s system.

Here are some video of him playing.