NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen's Women's Basketball Worldwide) - Ekrem Memnun will be hoping he doesn't have time in coming weeks to focus on his new duties as the new head coach of Turkey.

He would prefer to spend a little longer plotting Galatasaray's continued defence of their EuroLeague Women crown which hangs in the balance.

Within a little more than 24 hours of this column going online, he will know if he is taking his club team into the Play Offs, or can start planning for Turkey's EuroBasket Women campaign alongside the remainder of the domestic season in the TKBL.

Whenever he does sit down to write his initial 'to do' list for the national team, it will be a very interesting one. 

In fact, out of all the head coaches heading to Hungary and Romania in June, I think he may well have the most difficult job in some ways.

There's absolutely no denying he will be tasked with overseeing something of a transition and one set against the backdrop of his predecessor Ceyhun Yildizoglu having proudly put his nation firmly on the centre of the women's basketball radar.

Some believe that Yildizoglu might have squeezed even more out of his team than could have been imagined. A first EuroBasket Women Final, a first Olympic appearance, a second podium finish at EuroBasket Women 2013 and reaching the Semi-Finals of the FIBA World Championship for Women on debut makes for a pretty healthy record.

One of the main questions is whether fans in Turkey - and, for that matter, the national federation too - can be strong enough to recognise that the above should not increase expectations.

In my opinion, there needs to be a major shift and expectation needs to be quelled. 

I guess it is inevitable that the talk at his unveiling was about another EuroBasket Women podium finish and making it to the 2016 Olympics in Rio. You would expect to hear no less in public.

However, behind closed doors, I do wonder if Turkey are able to survey the landscape of where they are right now and accept the reality of the fuel tank threatening to run a little low.

Memnun's job will be to re-fuel and that could have short-term consequences on performance. But patience has to be shown.

Yes, EuroBasket Women 2015 is a wide-open tournament aside from Spain being favourites and consequently Turkey do have a reasonable chance of being successful yet again and making it to Brazil.

But they have already lost precious experience in the now retired Esmeral Tuncluer and there are question marks over whether Nevriye Yilmaz has hung up her shoes, or will return.

Even if she does extend her glittering career, she can not be expected to have the same level of impact as she has done in previous tournaments. 

The same can be said for the other veterans such as Tugba Palazoglu, Saziye Ivegin and Birsel Vardarli Demirmen, who are entering the twilight of their respective careers.

At the other end of the spectrum, young guns such as Cansu Koksal and Tilbe Senyurek who were handed shock debuts at the Worlds last year are exciting but both raw and inexperienced.

Worryingly, there is not a whole lot in between, other than talented playmaker Isil Alben and the naturalised Lara Sanders who provides a towering presence in the paint.

Players such as Bahar Caglar and Tugce Canitez have been struggling for minutes and form and it is hard to see many other options who will make an immediate splash if drafted in.

I love Merve Aydin, Pelin Bilgic and Olcay Cakir who make a trio of emerging guards, but that is probably for the future and maybe not 2015.

Therefore there is some serious work to do for Memnun and Turkey during coming years. 

A major generation is starting to inevitably dissipate and it needs to be recognised that the replacements aren't ready. One or two last swansongs may well happen for the current older players - but the current momentum could also simply run out of steam.

Memnun will have Turkey organised and his defensive strategies certainly make Galatasaray one of the most difficult teams in women's basketball to break down and score against.

They will be tough and, on balance, should still be challenging.

But if they don't manage to make it back to another podium or make it to the Olympics, then I really don't think it will be much of a surprise.

Turkey have made fabulous strides in the last five or six years.

But it won't be for another five or six  years in the future (until their entire programme at all levels is more advanced and mature), that they will truly be able to manage the kind of senior generational transition which is now in progress.

Paul Nilsen

FIBA

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