Turkey on verge of making history as it faces Slovenia

Turkey, which finished sixth at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, has never made it to a Worlds Final Four. The 12 Giant Men therefore want to change the established basketball order today by eliminating the gritty Slovenians and advancing to the semis.

And there is virtually no reason why the Turks cannot accomplish this feat. After all, they have won six straight at the championship so far. In other words, played six, won six and lost none -- a new Turkish record. Why can’t they be seven times lucky?

The unstoppable Turks -- backed by their basketball-savvy and well-behaved home fans -- first showed African representative Cote d’Ivoire the downside of hoops (86-47) in the group stage. Then they added Russia (65-56), stubborn neighbor Greece (76-65), Puerto Rico (79-77) and China (87-40) to their casualty list and emerged as the undisputed Group C leaders.

Turks eager to stay the course

The 12 Giant Men continued in the same vein in the Round of 16, crushing “Les Bleus” (France) -- 95-77 -- on Sunday night and sending Nicolas Sarkozy’s brethren packing ignominiously from the competition. Their reward was today’s quarters against Slovenia. And the Turks seem determined not only to get past this stage, but also to stay the course.

“We shall overcome,” Turkey captain Hidayet “Hedo” Türkoğlu of the Phoenix Suns, Efes Pilsen shooting guard Sinan Güler, Milwaukee Bucks small forward Ersan İlyasova, Fenerbahçe Ülker center Oğuz Savas and Co. all said during Monday’s practice session. It was all smiles with the national team as Efes Pilsen point guard Kerem Tunçeri, slightly injured during Sunday’s game against France, joined his teammates in Monday’s training sessions. Team manager Harun Erdenay confirmed Kerem will be available for today’s game against Slovenia.

The good thing for Turkey head coach Bogdan Tanjevic is that he has plenty of ammo in his arsenal, and therefore his team does not rely on a single player because all 12 Giant Men are superstars. For instance, Hedo stood out during the match against Russia, but Ersan was the star of the night against Greece and on Sunday it was Hedo and Sinan in the game against Les Bleus. “Having come this far it would be great to make the Final Four and then the final itself,” Tanjevic said. “Hopefully we will succeed.”

Slovenia no spring chicken

Tiny Slovenia covers an area of 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.06 million -- less than that of Turkey’s third largest city, İzmir. But the Slovenians, 20th in the latest FIBA world ranking for men, are not pushovers as far as basketball is concerned. Turkey is currently ranked 18th, but that may have to change after the Worlds.

The way and manner in which Slovenia dominated Australia to win 87-58 in the Round of 16 on Sunday means the Turks just cannot afford to rest on their laurels this evening. And Slovenia forward Uros Slokar sounded a timely warning. “We have become contenders among the top eight teams, first in Europe and now the world,” he said on Sunday after their fifth win in six matches.

“It is true that we are a small country but on the court the size of a country doesn’t matter; what matters is how the players perform and how the coach works with the players. We have a very good system which helps talents develop and grow as basketball players,” added Slokar.

The 12 Giant Men therefore have to chase every ball, avoid the unnecessary turnovers, shoot and strive to prevent the Slovenians from shooting throughout the duration of the game. That way the little European country would stand no chance.

Serbia against Spain

The other quarterfinal today pits Serbia against world champion Spain. On paper, the Spaniards start as favorites. But the fact of the matter is that basketball is played not on paper but on the court -- so this could be anyone’s game given the record of both teams. The Spaniards struggled in the group stages, but rebounded to teach Greece a good lesson

in the eight-finals. The Serbs performed well to finish as leader in their group, but were just lucky against the Croats on Saturday. The game promises to be a thriller.

Lıve on TV today

NTV

18:00 Serbia vs. Spain

21:00 Turkey vs. Slovenia