Turkey men's national basketball team

Turkey
	File:Tbf yeni 0.jpg
FIBA ranking	7 1
Joined FIBA	1936
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	TBF
Coach	Bogdan Tanjević
Nickname(s)	12 Dev Adam ; (12 Giant Men)
Olympic Games
Appearances	2
Medals	None
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	3
Medals	2010
EuroBasket
Appearances	22
Medals	2001
Home	Away

The Turkish national basketball team, is the basketball section that represents Turkey in international competitions. The team is nicknamed "12 Dev Adam" (literally: "12 Giant Men").

Turkey is considered as a strong force and is placed among the top basketball powers in Europe; they won two silver medals in international tournaments, one at EuroBasket and one at the FIBA World Championship. Currently, Turkey ranks sixth in the FIBA World Rankings.

History

Ahmet Robenson was known as being the first organizer of basketball in Turkey. In 1936 Turkey played their first ever basketball match against Greece winning 49–12. For many years basketball was the second most popular sport in Turkey but the national basketball team was never successful until the late 90s. Efes Pilsen was the first Turkish team to win a European Cup in any sports by clinching the Korać Cup. Since then basketball in Turkey has grown constantly as the national basketball team began to play a major role in international tournaments.

1930s–1940s EuroBasket debut

Turkey's European championship debut came at EuroBasket 1949. The Turks split their six games in the seven-team round robin tournament, finishing with three wins and three losses for 4th place.

1950s

Turkey competed again at EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. Their only loss in the preliminary round was to the Soviet Union as Turkey earned the second-rank spot with a 3–1 record. Their single loss to Bulgaria in the semi-final round, however, was enough to bump them from championship contention as they came out on the bottom of a three-way tie with a 2–1 record. They won their classification 5–8 game, but lost the 5/6 game to Italy.

Turkey returned after missing 1953's edition to EuroBasket 1955 in Budapest. They went 1–2 in their preliminary round group, taking third in the pool and moving to classification play. There they lost only to France on their way to a 3–1 record in classification round 1. They lost their 9–12 semi-final by 1 point to Finland, but defeated England 77–54 in the next game to take 11th place of the 18 team tournament.

Turkey appeared again at EuroBasket 1957 in Sofia. Losing to the Soviet Union and Poland in the preliminary round, Turkey took third in the group to be sent to the classification pool. They defeated each of the other seven teams in the classification round in order to take 9th place of the 16 teams.

Mediterranean success

The 60s, 70s and 80s would be a barren time for the national basketball team, they were however successful at the Mediterranean Games winning two bronze medals in 1967 and 1983, one silver medal in 1971 and one gold medal in 1987.

1990s

Turkey appeared again at EuroBasket 1993 after 12 years but it finished 11th among 16 teams. Turkey finished 13th among 14 teams at EuroBasket 1995, 8th among 16 teams at EuroBasket 1997, and again 8th among 16 teams at EuroBasket 1999.

2000s

At EuroBasket 2001, the Turkish national basketball team gave Turkish basketball a major boost by reaching the EuroBasket final for the first time in their history defeating Croatia in the quarter-finals and Germany in the semi-finals, in the final game Turkey played against Yugoslavia and lost with a score of 69–78 winning the silver medal. Turkish star İbrahim Kutluay scored 19 points in the final game and was included in the all-tournament team.

Turkey then qualified for the 2002 FIBA World Championship. Turkey had 4 wins and 4 defeats at the championship and finished 9th.

At EuroBasket 2003, Turkey reached the second round where they got eliminated by Serbia and Montenegro.

Turkey qualified for EuroBasket 2005 held in Serbia and Montenegro, but lost to Lithuania (87–75) and Croatia (80–67), defeating only Bulgaria (94–89) in the preliminary round. This win brought Turkey to the knock-out stage, where Germany eliminated the team 66–57. Turkey ended the tournament with a 9–12 rank.

Turkey was awarded one of the four wild cards by FIBA for the qualification to the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan.

Turkish squad completed the preliminary rounds in Group C at second place after the Greek team, and was entitled to play in the round of 16, winning 4 matches against Lithuania (76–74), Australia (76–68), Brazil (73–71) and Qatar (76–69) of the total 5, beaten only by Greece (69–76) in the last match. The young team made also achievements such as the first official win over Lithuania and the first ever 4 consecutive wins in a championship. On August 26, 2006 Turkish national team qualified for the Elite Eight defeating Slovenia by 90–84. In the quarter-finals Turkey lost to Argentina, they managed to defeat Lithuania once again before losing to France finishing 6th.

A new nickname, "12 Cesur Yürek" (12 Brave Hearts) was proposed after the young and inexperienced team's surprising performance in the 2006 World Championship, despite not having star players Hidayet Türkoğlu, Mehmet Okur, Mirsad Türkcan, Kerem Tunçeri and Hüseyin Beşok.

At EuroBasket 2007 Turkey played in Group C with Lithuania, Germany and Czech Republic. Turkey began by losing 86–69 to Lithuania and was then blown out 79–49 by Germany. The team ended group play with an 80–72 win over fellow bottom-of-the-group team Czech Republic. With that win Turkey advanced to the next round, but the team lost all its games (66–51 to Slovenia, 84–75 to Italy, 85–64 to France) in that round. Turkey were eliminated from EuroBasket 2007 with a 1–5 record and an 11th place finish.

At EuroBasket 2009 Turkey played in group D with hosts Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria. The D group matches took place in Wrocław, Poland. Turkey won all three of its group matches and qualified for the second round. Turkey enjoyed a strong start in the second round as well. The team won its first match, against World Champions Spain, when Aşık and İlyasova rejected a last-second shot by Sergio Llull. Turkey then beat Serbia in overtime. Turkey's winning streak came to an end against Slovenia, when, despite a 19-point comeback, Atsür missed a desperation three pointer in a 69–67 loss. In the quarter-finals, Turkey met Greece and lost a close game in overtime finishing the tournament 8th. Turkey won the bronze medal at the 2009 Mediterranean Games.

2010s

As the host country, Turkey automatically qualified for the 2010 FIBA World Championship. Turkey topped their group winning all their games against Côte d'Ivoire, Russia, Greece, Puerto Rico and China. In the knockout stages Turkey managed to defeat France, Slovenia and Serbia in a thrilling semi-final match which Turkey won 83–82. The team enjoyed its greatest FIBA success to date, going undefeated in group play and progressing to the final, where they eventually lost to the United States and won the silver medal. Each player gained 1,500,000 TL (approximately $1,000,000 in September, 2010) prize from the government for being the runner-up in the competition.^[1]

Orhun Ene was appointed head coach to lead Turkey during EuroBasket 2011, unfortunately the team had a bad tournament as they got eliminated in the second group phase after losing three straight games. Enes Kanter the big potential of international basketball was included to the roster for the first time. Turkey is the only team that managed to defeat EuroBasket 2011 winners Spain during the tournament.

Current roster

Template:Turkey National Basketball Team roster

Depth Chart

Pos.	Starter	Bench	Bench	Reserve
C	Ömer Aşık	Semih Erden	Kerem Gönlüm
PF	Ersan İlyasova	Enes Kanter	İlkan Karaman	Furkan Aldemir
SF	Hedo Türkoğlu	Emir Preldžić	Serhat Çetin	İzzet Türkyılmaz
SG	Ömer Onan	Sinan Güler	Göksenin Köksal	Cenk Akyol
PG	Kerem Tunçeri	Ender Arslan	Doğuş Balbay	Barış Ermiş

Competitive record

FIBA World Championship

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1950 to 1998	Did not participate
2002	9th	8	4	4
2006	6th	9	6	3
2010		9	8	1
2014	–	–	–	–
Total		26	18	8

Olympic Games

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1936	21st	2	0	2
1948	Did not participate
1952	22nd	3	0	3
1956 to 2012	Did not participate
Total		5	0	5

Mediterranean Games

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1951	–	–	–	–
1955	–	–	–	–
1959	–	–	–	–
1963	–	–	–	–
1967		–	–	–
1971		–	–	–
1975	–	–	–	–
1979	4th	–	–	–
1983		–	–	–
1987		–	–	–
1991	4th	–	–	–
1993	8th	–	–	–
1997	6th	–	–	–
2001	6th	–	–	–
2005	4th	5	2	3
2009		6	5	1
2013	–	–	–	–
Total		–	–	–

EuroBasket

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1935 to 1947	Did not participate
1949	4th	6	3	3
1951	6th	9	6	3
1953	Did not participate
1955	11th	9	5	4
1957	9th	10	8	2
1959	12th	7	3	4
1961	10th	8	3	5
1963	15th	9	1	8
1965 to 1969	Did not participate
1971	12th	7	1	6
1973	8th	7	2	5
1975	9th	7	3	4
1977	Did not participate
1979	Did not participate
1981	11th	8	1	7
1983 to 1991	Did not participate
1993	11th	6	2	4
1995	13th	6	1	5
1997	8th	9	3	6
1999	8th	9	4	5
2001		6	4	2
2003	12th	4	2	2
2005	9th	4	1	3
2007	11th	6	1	5
2009	8th	9	5	4
2011	11th	8	3	5
2013	Q	-	-	-
Total		154	62	92

FIBA Under-19 World Championship

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1979 to 1999	Did not participate
2003	8th	–	–	–
2007	7th	–	–	–
2009	Did not participate
2011	Did not participate
Total		–	–	–

European Youth Championship Performances

1	Under-16	3	1	4	8
2	Under-18	0	2	2	4
3	Under-20	0	1	1	2

Past rosters

1936 Olympic Games: finished 21st among 21 teams

Kamil Ocak, Şeref Alemdar, Naili Moran, Hazdayi Penso, Nihat Ertuğ, Jak Habib, Feridun Koray, Dionis Sakalak, Sadri Usluoğlu, Hayri Arsebük (Coach: Rupen Semerciyan)

1949 EuroBasket: finished 4th among 7 teams

Hüseyin Öztürk, Samim Göreç, Ali Uras, Avram Barokas, Mehmet Ali Yalım, Tevfik Tankut, Sacit Seldüz, Erdoğan Partener, Ayduk Koray, Haşim Tankut, Candaş Tekeli, Vitali Benazus

1951 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 17 teams

Yalçın Granit, Ali Uras, Mehmet Ali Yalım, Avram Barokas, Sacit Seldüz, Nejat Diyarbakırlı, Yılmaz Gündüz, Cemil Sevin, Sadi Gülçelik, Ertem Göreç, Ayhan Demir

1952 Olympic Games: finished 22nd among 23 teams

Yalçın Granit, Ali Uras, Mehmet Ali Yalım, Altan Dinçer, Sacit Seldüz, Nejat Diyarbakırlı, Yılmaz Gündüz, Sadi Gülçelik, Yüksel Alkan, Turhan Tezol, Erdoğan Partener, Güney Ülmen

1955 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 18 teams

Yalçın Granit, Mehmet Ali Yalım, Altan Dinçer, Sadi Gülçelik, Tunç Erim, Yüksel Alkan, Turhan Tezol, Yalçın Okaya, Yavuz Türkoğlu, Üner Erimer, Yüksel Böke, Erdoğan Karabelen, Cahit Tanık, Şinasi Ertan

1957 EuroBasket: finished 9th among 16 teams

Yalçın Granit, Mehmet Baturalp, Orhan Girgin, Tunç Erim, Yavuz Türkoğlu, Yılmaz Gündüz, Altan Dinçer, Turhan Tezol, Üner Erimer, Erdoğan Karabelen, Erkan Gündüz

1959 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 17 teams

Mehmet Baturalp, Ünal Büyükaycan, Nedret Uyguç, Şengün Kaplanoğlu, Turhan Tezol, Tunç Erim, Ömer Urkon, Özer Salnur, Erdoğan Karabelen, Güner Yalçıner, Tuğrul Demir, Ali Kazaz (Coach: Samim Göreç)

1961 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 19 teams

Mehmet Baturalp, Şengün Kaplanoğlu, Nedret Uyguç, Dursun Açıkbaş, Altan Dinçer, Tuncer Kobaner, Haşim Ülkü, Ömer Urkon, Ali Kazaz, Yavuz Demir, Erdal Poyrazoğlu, Ersan Salihoğlu

1963 EuroBasket: finished 15th among 16 teams

Mehmet Baturalp, Nedret Uyguç, Nedim Hoşgör, Ünal Büyükaycan, Şengün Kaplanoğlu, Tuncer Kobaner, Haşim Ülkü, Özer Salnur, Halil Dağlı, İlker Esel, Hüseyin Kozluca, Yavuz Demir (Coach: Yalçın Granit)

1971 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 12 teams

Nur Germen, Hüseyin Alp, Kemal Erdenay, Nadir Vekiloğlu, Barış Küce, Battal Durusel, Zeki Tosun, Reşat Güney, Cihat İlkbaşaran, Serdar Ersözlü, Abdullah İnce (Coach: Mehmet Baturalp)

1973 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 12 teams

Aydın Örs, Doğan Hakyemez, Kemal Erdenay, Battal Durusel, Reşat Güney, Nuri Tan, Serdar Ersözlü, Necmi Ton, Zeki Tosun, Erdal Poyrazoğlu, Abdullah İnce, Halil Dağlı (Coach: Mehmet Baturalp)

1975 EuroBasket: finished 9th among 12 teams

Nur Germen, Kemal Erdenay, Doğan Hakyemez, Efe Aydan, Barış Küce, Battal Durusel, Nadir Vekiloğlu, Ömürden Kısagün, Zeki Tosun, Erdal Poyrazoğlu, Abdullah İnce, Kemal Akıncı (Coach: Mehmet Baturalp)

1981 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 12 teams

Efe Aydan, Erman Kunter, Doğan Hakyemez, Aytek Gürkan, Emir Turam, Necati Güler, Mehmet Döğüşken, Serdar Koçyiğit, Melih Erçin, Cevat Soydaş, Celal Arısan, Sadi Olcay

1993 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 16 teams

Harun Erdenay, Orhun Ene, Lütfi Arıboğan, Levent Topsakal, Ömer Büyükaycan, Hüsnü Çakırgil, Tamer Oyguç, Volkan Aydın, Serdar Apaydın, Murat Konuk, Erdal Koşan, Ömer Saybir (Coach: Nur Germen)

1995 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 14 teams

Harun Erdenay, Orhun Ene, İbrahim Kutluay, Haluk Yıldırım, Levent Topsakal, Ömer Büyükaycan, Tamer Oyguç, Lütfi Arıboğan, Mirsad Türkcan, Murat Konuk, Murat Evliyaoğlu, Serdar Apaydın (Coach: Çetin Yılmaz)

1997 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 16 teams

İbrahim Kutluay, Harun Erdenay, Orhun Ene, Ufuk Sarıca, Mirsad Türkcan, Tamer Oyguç, Hüseyin Beşok, Volkan Aydın, Murat Evliyaoğlu, Murat Konuk, Tunç Girgin, Kemal Tunçeri (Coach: Ercüment Sunter)

1999 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 16 teams

Hidayet Türkoğlu, İbrahim Kutluay, Mehmet Okur, Mirsad Türkcan, Ufuk Sarıca, Hüseyin Beşok, Tamer Oyguç, Haluk Yıldırım, Murat Konuk, Kerem Tunçeri, Cüneyt Erden, Asım Pars (Coach: Erman Kunter)