Pınar Karşıyaka, one of the Turkish Insurance Basketball Super League teams, won 6 games in a row and moved up to the 3rd place in the scoreboard. Head Coach of the Green-Red Teams, Ufuk Sarıca, stated that his team did a good job despite not having a wide rotation, and said, “We don’t have a very wide rotation, we had a hard time establishing the team at the beginning of the season.”
Pınar Karşıyaka Head Coach Ufuk Sarıca evaluated the situation of his team in the Turkish Insurance Basketball Super League to İhlas News Agency (İHA). Stating that they are a new team, Sarıca also emphasized that they experience the difficulties of being a new team from time to time. Pınar Karşıyaka Head Coach Ufuk Sarıca said, “We are a very new team, we are still experiencing the difficulties of being a new team. “We make mistakes in the games we win,” he said.
“We are a good team with good players”
Mentioning that they have good players, Sarıca said, “We started the league by winning one after the other, but we lost 3 matches in a period. One of them is Fenerbahçe Beko and the other is Türk Telekom. These two teams share the first two places in the league. Very ambitious and strong teams. I think there is one mistake we made; maybe it was the Tofaş match we lost at home. We have played so many away games in the 12-game period until now that A. Efes and Darüşşafaka were among those away games. Galatasaray and Beşiktaş matches; I think we made up for that mistake with the matches we won. Actually, we didn’t do much extra outside of our normal work. Because we are a good team with good players. Maybe we don’t have a very wide rotation, we had difficulties in establishing the team at the beginning of the season. This is also a fact, but we knew that we could do good things with our good players. But we are a very new team and we are still experiencing the difficulties of being a new team. We make mistakes in the games we win. In that part of the season, we made a little more of these mistakes. There were matches we lost close, we could have won, but then we won 6 matches in a row and now we are third above. We are in a very good position. We want to continue our remaining three matches somehow.”
“We are one less win from the top”
Expressing that it is too early to talk about the race for the summit, Sarıca said, “We are one less win from the summit. But A. Efes, Galatasaray, Tofaş are still missing a win from us, they are very close, that is, there. It’s too early to talk about that yet, but it is a fact that the higher you can stay in the top four and even finish in the top four, the better advantage you have in the play-offs. We are trying to do this. Most of the teams we just mentioned will come to us away in the second half. Here, in a packed hall, we will try to turn that advantage in our favor. But as I said, we want to finish the last three games by playing well and winning. This is our primary goal,” he said.
“It will be a tough match and a tough series”
Emphasizing that the Spanish representative Murcia is a tough team, Sarıca said, “Of course, our first target is to stay 16-8. From there to the final-four. We want to go gradually. Our group was obviously a difficult group where anything could happen. In the last game, we lost a game we could have won. Maybe then we would have the field advantage. But in the end, field advantages aren’t everything. It will be a tough match and a tough series. Murcia is a mid-range team in Spain, especially in its own league, but it is very strong in the Spanish League. More than that, a long journey awaits us with the displacement conditions that will force us even more. Saturday New Year’s Day; After playing the Bahçeşehir game, we will set off on Sunday and it will be a journey that will take almost 12-13 hours, almost all day. We need to survive a little more than those conditions. A team with atmosphere, Murcia, with the hall and the fans. Of course, it is important to stay calm there. If we can win the first game there, of course, we can make the series very different. But we want to stay on the field until the end and do this fight without giving up. We are already such a team, and when we fall behind, we can stand up again and win the match. As a result, we will do our best to pass this tour,” he said.
“Our fans are fans who can influence the game”
Emphasizing the importance of his fans, Sarıca said, “I played here for a long time. In front of the really packed stands, our fans are fans who can influence the match. But this year, especially some matches may be empty. Maybe it’s coming back to back. Bursa match on Saturday was fuller. But the game two days later may make it a little harder for people to come and go. But in a packed hall, it is a fact that our team is much different and takes much more strength. I think in the upcoming games, especially in the second half, because there is this. We started two matches in Europe without fans. We’ve always played away games in a row. Sometimes the match is chosen and some matches are skipped. But I think we will come out with a much more crowded and different hall in the second half.”
“Eric McCollum’s quality and history is a known player”
Mentioning the importance of Eric McCollum, Sarıca concluded his words as follows: “Eric McCollum is an actor whose quality and history are known. Frankly, we transferred him to our team at the beginning of the season for such performances. Despite his age as an athlete, he is a player who trains regularly and takes care of himself, but what he does is very usual performances. It was like this when he won the EuruCup in Galatasaray as well. He gave similar performances in China and Russia. Therefore, he is not a player to be left blank, but it is not possible for him to play like this all season. We will see performances like this from time to time.”
UAV
