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Thinking about the Euroleague Final Four

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:10:55 GMT

Hi everybody. You know it's been a very busy season for me as a member of the Turkish national team and Fenerbahce Ulker. It started with a busy summer getting ready for and playing at the European Championship in Spain. So it’s good to have a little rest before the start of the Turkish League playoffs, where we will face Antalya Buyuksehir Belediyesi this weekend.

I want to use this opportunity to send my condolences to Willie Solomon, whose grandmother passed away. Willie traveled to the USA for the funeral and I hope he returns in good mental spirits because we need him very much.

While we are preparing for our playoffs, we are also thinking about what's going to happen at the Euroleague Final Four in Madrid. My teammates and I are mostly in agreement about with out predictions. I expect CSKA Moscow and Montepaschi Siena to win the semifinal games. I see CSKA Moscow as the favorite against Tau Ceramica because of the lone time that those players have been together and their collective experience in these kinds of stressful games. CSKA has many players that have been together for a number of years like Theodoros Papaloukas, Matjaz Smodis, J.R. Holden and Trajan Langdon, under the coaching of a very experienced and skillful coach in Ettore Messina. Tau Ceramica is a good team of many extraordinary talents, but my favorite is absolutely CSKA in this match up.

In the other match up, Montepaschi Siena is a step ahead of Maccabi Tel Aviv. When you look at Maccabi, they started the season poorly, but recovered immediately after they brought Zvi Sherf as the new head coach of the team. They are in form now. But honestly, Montepaschi Siena is the most successful team of this whole season. They have great harmony both in defense and offence and share the ball very well. Their defensive pressure causes opponents to turn the ball over much more than their normal average. They have a great, tough defense. If Maccabi can handle this pressure, they have a chance at winning, if not, no chance.

I don’t have the latest information about things like injuries. But if everybody is healthy on CSKA Moscow, they are my favorites in the final too. Of course, there are surprises in all sports. But if everything goes right, CSKA Moscow can win the Euroleague crown. That is what I think.

And if anybody is wondering what will happen in Turkish League playoffs, my recommendation for them is to sit, relax and to watch the games. They will see Fenerbahce Ulker winning the title again for sure.

Bye for now

Ready for more

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:35:12 GMT

Hi everybody,

I hope you all enjoyed the Top 16 matches like we did! It was like a thrilling Hollywood production in the last week, when most of the teams booked their playoff places at the last minute. The last week of the Top 16 was a milestone for our club history as we qualified for the quarterfinals. Before the game against Tau Ceramica, my teammates and I were self-motivating ourselves for nearly a week. And as a result of this great motivation, we made a thunderous start and took an early lead, which we defended well enough until the end. After the game in the locker room, all we were talking about was the matchup with Montephaschi Siena in the quarterfinals. Everybody was saying hopeful things in the joy of the moment, but the main subject was how we can go through to the Final Four. And honestly, most of us were saying that it won't be a miracle if we move into the big four.

Neither do I think that it's a surprise for us to have advanced into the Quarterfinal Playoffs. We can only say that we were lucky at the time when the draw was held. We were lucky that we didn't face the great teams like Panathinaikos, who we had in the regular season, CSKA Moscow, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Olympiacos. We had a lucky draw, the rest is not a surprise for us.

When we first saw the results of the Top 16 draw, I thought we would qualify through to the quarterfinals if there was no big accident on our part. And it happened the way we wanted. Lietuvos Rytas came to our group as the leaders of the first stage, but their group was not that strong compared with other groups. They were really a good team, but we were better and we proved it in the games we played against them as well as in the other games. We would have qualified more easily, but in fact we did have that accident - losing against Aris TT Bank at home - only it didn't kill our chances. If we would not have lost that game, we could have finished the group with a better record.

But of course, to reach this level without stars like Mirsad Turkcan and Ibrahim Kutluay can maybe be considered a surprise. But we are playing as a team and the team's performance hides those absences very well. Tarence Kinsey is playing the same role as our legendary teammate Kutluay and Omer Asik, since he joined the team, has filled the absence of Turkcan with a perfect performance.

Our playoff opponent, Montepaschi Siena, is one of this season's great examples of team play. Their defense is really among the best in the Euroleague. They are also good on pick-and-rolls, which they run as a team. We have to be very careful on defense. They don't let their opponents score more than 60 points at home. They don't have big stars, but when it comes to playing as an excellent team, you can only give them credit. So we have to be tough and to reply the same way. I don't see Montepaschi Siena as a team that is unbeatable. At least, they are not at the same level of Panathinaikos, CSKA Moscow or Tau Ceramica.

This is a big step for Turkish basketball as well. We know that our mission is more than just the aims of Fenerbahce Ulker, because we are representing Turkish basketball on the top level. The Euroleague is the best league and for me it's better than the NBA, because there are more challenges, physical play and rivalry between the teams in the...

I'm no furtune teller, but...

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:27:41 GMT

Hello everyone! Greetings on a shiny, sunny day from Istanbul. It's really like summer here and makes me feel like I'm on my way to summer holiday instead of practice! But the reality is that we have to work harder than ever to complete our mission. Maybe you are wondering about our mission. So let me tell you a little bit about it. I told you in my first blog before the Top 16 starts that Tau Ceramica is the favorite team of our group for first place. The progress of the group has proven that. I also claimed that we would be digging for second place with Lietuvos Rytas. I'm not a fortune teller, but everything is happening the way I told you.

Of course, it was good to win against Lietuvos Rytas on our home court, but I'm still feeling uncomfortable because we missed the chance to win this game by a larger difference. We had a 15-point lead in this game but weren't able to save it until the end. But of course, winning is very important, too. It still seems like we are going to be in a battle for that second spot. But now, the advantage is on our side. It might not be so very important if we lose to Rytas on the road, if we then can beat Tau Ceramica in the last game in Istanbul. Anyway, it would be a great success for us if we reach to the quarterfinals. To become one of the top eight teams will be the biggest achievement we can imagine, because there are plenty of great clubs with big budgets and to reach the same level of those clubs will be an extraordinary success for us.

By the way, we are seeing my young teammates on fire in the last couple of games. They are doing great job and it helps the team to move further. If we keep on playing like this, we can surprise people even more. I really have to open a big parenthesis for Omer Asik. He is a great talent who really intimidates our opponents with his defense. He is one of the top players in blocked shots in the Euroleague and also at making opponents in the paint afraid to shoot. Also Emir Preldzic, Gasper Vidmar and Semih Erden after his injury are getting better match by match and that's good for the rotations on our team as well.

When I think about the game we played last week against Lietuvos Rytas, I remember that those kind of things could happen anytime. In fact, the same thing did happen a year ago in Istanbul, in the game between Efes Pilsen and Prokom Trefl, which also went to overtime after a basket on the buzzer was decided after to have been late. The only thing I can criticize from our situation last week is that the decision to play overtime could have been taken sooner. We waited in the locker rooms so long, nearly 45 minutes, and that's really too long for the players of both teams after losing so much energy in the game. To sit and have your legs and muscles get cold and then return back in the game is not an easy thing to handle. It also raises the risk of injury, so I am glad that nobody on either team was injured.

A funny thing happened in the locker room before the overtime decision. We were sure we had won the game with Willie Solomon's basket in the last second of the fourth quarter. We took off our tape, bandages and uniforms, we had showered already and were changed. So when the decision was announced, our head coach, Mr. Bogdan Tanjevic, went crazy when he saw us with our regular clothes on. He started shouting and...

Road warriors of the Top 16

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:16:23 GMT

Hello everybody,

It's been a very busy day. I'm on the way to Thessaloniki for our first Top 16 game and as I write this. We are still on the bus because of the Greek airlines' strike. We went to Skopje instead of Athens for that reason, and we are now moving to Thessaloniki for the Aris TT Bank game by bus from Skopje. I don't know if we will miss the Wednesday evening practice, but I do know it will be a hard one for sure if we have it. One of the hardest things about being a player is the long trips. You know that as basketball players, we are all tall, and the regular seats of airplanes are not suitable enough for us. It's only good when you sit in an exit row. Flights with connections really hurt us. The bus trips - like this one - are ones we hate, too.

It's not going to be the first Top 16 game for me, but it is for my team, Fenerbahce Ulker. I was involved in Top 16 games very often when I was playing for Efes Pilsen and also for Ulker before. It's really very precious for all of us to be in the Top 16 as members of Fenerbahce Ulker basketball team, but it has another meaning, too. Including some American players like Willie Solomon, we are all addicted to the Fenerbahce Ulker team, not only as players, but as feverish fans. I feel the love for Fenerbahce deep inside my heart, as do many of my teammates, including Mirsad Turkcan, Damir Kaan, Solomon, Semih Erden, Hakan Demirel and Rasim Basak. That makes it easier for us than for any other team to unify and put up a challenge for the colors you all love. I hope that will help us a lot more in the Top 16. Unfortunately, we are missing one of those guys who is in love with Fenerbahce, Ibrahim Kutluay. He is one of the legendary players of our club and could have helped us a lot if he would have remained on the team.

We are trying to become a permanent fixture in the Top 16 and also in the Quarterfinal Playoffs. This is what we are targeting now. We all know that it's a hard task to move into the last eight, but we will push for it until the end. I can honestly say that we are in a better group when compared to our group in the first phase. But it doesn't mean that our opponents are easier than before. Lietuvos Rytas and Tau Ceramica are teams that are targeting the Final Four. Aris TT Bank proved that they are always dangerous for Turkish teams by beating Efes Pilsen this season and Fenerbahce twice last year. So we have to play twice as good as we did in the first round. But, of course, we have some doubts because of the injuries and sicknesses. Semih Erden is trying to get in form after a long injury. He is back in training, but still needs time to find his and our rhythm. Mirsad Turkcan has been sick and is not well yet.

One guy who can make a difference for us is Tarence Kinsey, a very nice guy who is adjusting European basketball as quickly as he can. He is very talented and I'm sure he will help us a lot and will be one of the best-known American players all around Europe, soon. I also want to share a funny thing about Tarence. It happened was when he was playing in his first or second game in the Turkish League. He fell down on the ground with the ball in his hands and two guys from the other team rolling on him, trying to steal the ball. When he saw the guys on him, Tarence immediately signaled to the referees for a timeout, which of course is permitted in...