Ready to rock in the Top 16!
Hello everybody,
Just as it is for all real basketball fans, the arrival of the Top 16 is good news for Fenerbahce Ulker fans. You know, we are challenging on two fronts this season: on the court and off the court. I'm sure you know what I mean: on the court, with our opponents; and off the court, with injuries. We are trying to defend our title in Turkish League, to win the Turkish Cup and of course, the main target, to reach the Final Four in Berlin. So far, we have done well despite the difficulty of successive injuries. Back in the early fall, playing for the Turkish national team in the group qualifying stages for EuroBasket 2009, three of us - Semih Erden, Omer Asik and I - suffered serious injuries. Semih and I started to play again in the middle of the Euroleague regular season. But Omer Asik is still waiting for his turn to come back, hopefully within a month. That's not to forget the long-term injury suffered by our new signing at the beginning of the season, Gordan Giricek, whom we hope will be ready for the Top 16.
Besides the return of Giricek, the main good news is that we showed during the regular season that we were capable of doing something special despite all those very important absences. I think we were able to qualify because of the young talents and newcomers making such a good connection with the experienced players on the team. Emir Preldzic, Gasper Vidmar and Oguz Savas made huge improvements of quality in our game. At the same time, new guys like Marques Green and Devin Smith made quick adjustments to our team concepts. And, of course, I cannot overlook the contributions of the good old guys like Damir Mrsic and Mirsad Turkcan. They all lifted their games enough to hide the absence of the injured players.
As I said, we have good chemistry based on a mixture of young talents and experienced stars. This concept has been in place for two years, and the signs that our progress are the titles we have won in the Turkish League and our quarterfinal spot in the Euroleague last season. Then, we had excellent team players added to our roster this season. Devin Smith is a perfect kind of team player, a very positive addition for us. At the point guard position, we had a kind of revolution. Willie Solomon was also a great player who loves the ball, was aggressive on offense and yes, sometimes positively lunatic on offense. Marques Green is a different kind of player who is really delightful to play with. I really enjoy playing on the same team with Marques. I have never participated in so many fastbreaks in my career! It's just because he knows to feed me the ball when I'm running. At the same time, Marques is an expert at passing to the big men on the pick 'n' rolls - with perfect timing. For that reason, our scoring is distributed among at least seven or eight players on the team. That makes a team difficult to beat. Gordan Giricek is a kind of basketball phenomenon who I believe will help us a lot in the Top 16. We are expectant to see him back in action.
Let's talk about our future plans a little bit. As a player who has been in a Final Four organization before, I believe that Fenerbahce Ulker will be among the top four in the near future. I say it because this is a good organization with a well-balanced team and an excellent coach in Bogdan Tanjevic. It's true that the balance between the Euroleague teams is breaking. There are four or five teams with very high budgets, nearly two-and-a-half times more than ours. We are trying to challenge those great teams and I believe that we can take the title in 2010 or 2011. At the same time, we will have our new arena coming to the Asian side of Istanbul in 2010. I hope we can someday host the Final Four there and take the title before our own fans.
Actually I'm a very greedy guy who always relies on winning and nothing else. When I was playing for Efes Pilsen, I was only famous for my defensive skills. But now, I can play both sides of the game, offense as well as defense. Like many of players, it makes me feel comfortable and motivated to play in front of full arenas. It makes me feel different when we play with less fans than when the stands are packed with 12,000 people. Aggressive players are nourished by those atmospheres and raise their performances accordingly, as is the case with guys like Mirsad Turkcan and Damir Mrsic. Actually, I'm getting excited at the way I am playing this season. Not only this season, but in the last four or five years. I love to play this way and I hope to keep on playing this way, offensively and defensively, until at least 36 years old!
My final words are for the Top 16 group stage. When we look at our group, it's very simple to say that it's the hardest group of the Top 16. But for me, it's hard also because we are in it. What makes it hard is the existence of Fenerbahce Ulker alongside CSKA Moscow and Montepaschi Siena. All of those three teams are equal according to the energy they spend on the defensive side of the ball. We are all trying to win the games by keeping our opponents' scoring average lower. What's similar about those two teams, CSKA Moscow and Montepaschi Siena, are how they share the ball on offense. They can create scoring from any player on the team at any moment. They have stars, but they are extremely good with all players on both sides of the court, defense as well as offense.
We are planning to win all three of our home games by filling Abdi Ipekci Arena with our fans. This is the main criteria for us to create the atmosphere for a possible win. The second thing is our defense. Now we have to rely on our strong defensive for 33 to 40 minutes, instead of just 20 to 25. Also, we have to pay attention to timing, cuts and screens to create easy points instead of tough ones. I believe that the team that goes to the Quarterfinal Playoffs from first place in our group will have a 100-percent chance for the Final Four, but also that our group's second team will have a 75 percent chance to reach the same target. We have no fear about any of our opponents. We will show that with our aggressive, attacking style of play.
POSTED BY
OMER ONAN - ISTANBUL, TURKEY
DATE:
Wednesday, January 21, 2009