Turkey Find Second Chance In Madrid

Turkey shocked many observers last summer by finishing sixth at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, but they nearly shocked and embarrassed themselves in Palma de Mallorca before managing to advance out of Group C at EuroBasket 2007.

The talented Turks bounced back from blowout losses to Lithuania and Germany to beat the Czech Republic 80-72 and move onto the qualifying round in Madrid.

And now they hope the Czech contest was just the beginning of a big turn-around in the Spanish capital.

"We know what kind of power we have inside of ourselves. I don't know why we played like that the first two games, but I hope that we are going to play a lot better in Madrid than we did in Mallorca," said Turkey captain Ibrahim Kutluay, who rebounded from a zero-point showing against Germany to score 17 in the victory against the Czechs.

"We were not expecting to lose (against Germany) by 30 points. That loss was very bad. Fortunately we knew we could win this game and go to the next round. And we won because we fought more and had more hustle than we did in the other two games."

That hustle and fighting spirit was clearly lacking early in the tournament, and even coach Bogdan Tanjevic didn't know the reason why.

"I don't think it's intentional. I don't think anybody wants to play by themselves. All 12 of these teams are strong because they are here. How can I describe the difference from last year ... it's very strange for me," Tanjevic said after the Germany debacle.

The Bosnian was clearly happier after Wednesday's showing: "I'm satisfied to see my team play and show its real face."

Guard Ender Arslan admitted the team was still down before the Czech game but were able to find themselves, adding: "We talked and we said we are a good team and that we can beat any team in this tournament. We just had to start with this game. I hope we can show our real character in Madrid."

The two losses were hardly the results Tanjevic was expecting after seeing youngsters like Ersan Ilyasova, Ender Arslan and Engin Atsur emerge in the Far East last summer with the likes of NBA players Mehmet Okur and Hidayet Turkoglu not around.

Things were looking very promising for Turkey with their sights set on improving continually until they host the 2010 FIBA World Championship - knowing that big guns like Okur and Turkoglu were still available to be implemented into the team.

click for more details

source : eurobasket2007.org