February 08, 2012
Efes Pilsen team profile
Efes PilsenAnother season of competing great but falling short of the high standards it sets in results makes Efes Pilsen as hungry as ever to reach for greatness in 2007-08. Persistence has been the middle name for Efes for a long time, but its run to the very last game of the Euroleague Quarterfinal Playoffs in 2004-05 provided the best example yet of a team determined to achieve great things. Its single-minded goal to be always at its best has resulted in new era of dominance for Efes in Turkey, where it won four consecutive domestic league titles between 2002 and 2005. Efes is often called the Pride of Turkey for having won that country's first European title in a team sport by taking the Korac Cup in 1996. And while giving its country an international champion, Efes also solidified the growing reputation of Turkish basketball. Efes had made its first impact on the Turkish League with three titles between 1979 and 1984. A new streak of domestic dominance saw it take the Turkish crown in five of six seasons ending in 1997. The Korac Cup title in 1996 and a previous Saporta Cup final in 1993 put Efes on the continental map with players like Petar Naumoski, Volkan Aydin, Ufuk Sarica, the late Conrad McRae, Tamer Oyguc and a young Mirsad Turkcan, all coached by Aydin Ors. Already a Euroleague regular, in 2000 Efes achieved another first among Turkish teams by making the Final Four, a milestone it repeated in the 2001 SuproLeague.
2006-07 RESULTS
Euroleague
R. Season
8-6
Top 16
2-4
Turkish League
R. Season
27-3
Playoffs
Finalist
Hedo Turkoglu, Mehmet Okur, Predrag Drobnjak, Ibrahim Kutluay and Damir Mulaomerovic were among those that helped Efes to its biggest Euroleague success. Since then, Efes is the team that has consistently come closest to the Final Four without making it. In 2003-04, that meant missing the Final Four by a single shot, just as in 2004-05, Efes was the only team to reach the last game of the Euroleague Quarterfinal Playoffs before falling. The team returned to the Euroleague Quarterfinal Playoffs in 2005-06, only to be swept by eventual champion CSKA Moscow. Kaya Peker, Ermal Kuqo, Antonio Granger and Kerem Gonlum have kept Efes fully competitive throughout those years. Even though the team did not make the Quarterfinal Playoffs last season and won its last Turkish League title in 2005, it added Turkish Cup trophies in 2006 and 2007, showing loyalty to its outstanding winning tradition. Even though last season had a bittersweet end, Efes left no doubt that its place is among the uppermost elite of Europe is solid. No team has knocked harder for so long on the Final Four door, which makes Efes Pilsen a candidate to finally knock it down in 2007-08.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Euroleague.net
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