General Manager Tolga Öngören and Head Coach Hakan Demir in TOFAŞ, one of the Basketball Super League teams, made statements before the new season.
Pointing out that they have left behind a difficult year, TOFAŞ General Manager Tolga Öngören noted that they were happy to survive the 2020/21 season, which was under the heavy impact of the pandemic, as unscathed as possible.
Pointing out that the biggest feature of the 2021/22 season is that the spectators come to the hall gradually, albeit with 50 percent capacity, and now gradually leave this pandemic behind and return to normal lives, Öngören gave information about the staff planning for the new season.
Öngören said, “We made some changes while preparing for this season. Last year, we parted ways with those who did not fit our structure. There were also those who wanted to go elsewhere, as in the example of Tarik Phillip. He had a buy-out situation. We understood them too. Because we wanted to 100 percent. Let’s be together with the players who want us and know the value of the Turkish league and TOFAŞ. Jeremy Simmons and Tomislav Zubcic were already going. After Berkan’s departure, we preferred Elgin Cook. Like Pako Cruz, the league’s top scorer, and like Kasey Shepherd, the Champions League’s MVP “We formed our squad by transferring the player of the same name. The coming of Yiğit Arslan, who has grown up with us, and I saw Yiğit very mature both individually and in basketball this year. We took Emre Tanışan from Gemlik. He played very well in Gemlik last year.” te. His place is here now, it is BSL. A chance should be given here, so does our head coach. Berkan Durmaz has made a decision, we respect it. I hope he will Everything will be better for n. Mert Konuk wanted to leave last year because he took a short time. Although we were under contract, we understood and allowed it. I hope it will go well. TOFAŞ’s door is open to him and Berkan as well as everyone else.”
Öngören said that they recruited a lot of players from the BGL team. He also stated that the average age of their 15-man cadres is 23.6.
“WE WILL GO THROUGH OUR PLAYERS FROM OUR INFRASTRUCTURE FORM THE MAIN CHEMISTRY IN EUROPE AND IN THE TURKISH LEAGUES”
Answering a question about budget management in basketball, Öngören said, “You can’t manage this business sustainably by investing a lot of money. Here, there is only one solution for continuity in the budget and sportive success. You have to produce players. We are already a club with this vision. Therefore, we are in the Champions League in Turkey as well. “As we go up in the league, we will go with these players, who grew up from our infrastructure, to create the main chemistry. One of the important goals for us is to bring players from a better infrastructure. At the Euroleague level, players who can enter the 12-man squad of the A National Team and be selected for the NBA draft. Our current challenge is here.” In this sense, we are very happy with the development of our player, Berke Büyüktuncel, who was born in 2004. The development of Ege Demir is enormous. But he will experience another transition period as his status is still not clear. We have other players coming from the bottom. The 2023-2024 Season is our club’s 50th anniversary. It will be the year. We want to go there with our infrastructure. There will be more roles they will take responsibility,” he said.
“WE WANT TO BRING THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 4 TO BURSA”
Noting that they want to bring the Champions League final 4 to Bursa, Öngören said, “We’ll see when this happens. But we want to do this in the medium term. We definitely want to be in the play-offs and the top sides in the Turkish league. But while doing this, we will make a face every year. we want,” he said.
HAKAN DEMİR: WE WILL BE A TEAM THAT EVERYONE WILL FOLLOW WITH PROUD
TOFAŞ Head Coach Hakan Demir reminded that he joined the team last season and noted that it was a tiring season.
Saying that they have recruited players suitable for TOFAŞ’s structure for the new season, Hakan Demir said, “We had players who left, but we continue on our way by completing the rest of the regions with players from TOFAŞ. We played 7 matches during the preparation period. We saw that there is a team that struggles and does not give up the fight. Have a good day.” “There will be bad days. I hope that until the end of the season, if there is no serious injury or loss of players, we will be a team that represents TOFAŞ and Bursa well and that everyone can follow with pride,” he said.
“WE GAVE WELL”
Stating that they played 6 matches in 10 days in the second part of the preparation period, Demir said:
“It was a bit heavy. In our first match in Antalya, we lost against Anadolu Efes even though we were ahead until the middle of the 4th period. This was a bit of a disappointment for us because it was a game we played well. The next match was another Euroleague team, Zalgiris Kaunası, from the beginning of the match. We played well until the end. We beat Lokomotiv Kuban by 17 points on the last day. They are also a strong Eurocup team. After returning from there, we faced Gaziantep Basketball in Cevat Soydaş. They were a hard team that was also well prepared. We lost that game in overtime. Despite the team’s reaction the next day, the reaction of the team was very valuable for us. After the Galatasaray victory, we beat Bahçeşehir College, which beat Fenerbahçe with 20 points on the last day. Therefore, even if things go bad from time to time, even if there are bad luck and disappointments, he will be able to cope with it and overcome it. I see it as a team.”
Gürkan DURAL-Mehmet İNAN/BURSA,(DHA)
