TUR - Ene: Turkey wants Olympic bid, "getting stronger every year"

PANEVEZYS (EuroBasket 2011) - In this year's EuroBasket tournament, Turkey showed real perseverance in coming back from what might have been devastating back-to-back losses to Lithuania and Poland to top defending European champions Spain in the final game of the first round. Fans of the Turkish side can be thankful not only for the championship mentality of their roster, but also for coach Orhun Ene, who has grown right along with the current incarnation of the national team.

First earning his chops as a player with the Turkish national team beginning in 1993, Ene was a member of the silver-medal winning side in 2001. Shortly thereafter, he turned his knowledge to coaching stints in the TBL and as an assistant to Bogdan Tanjevic, who guided Turkey to another second-place finish in the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

This familiarity with both Turkish basketball and the specific squad has allowed Ene to improve his team with youngsters like Enes Kanter and Emir Predzelic while keeping continuity with the core group of veteran stars including Hedo Turkoglu, Ersan Ilyasova and Omer Asik: It's an enviable combination of young, old and coaching leadership that few teams in the EuroBasket tournament can claim.

On the additions - and their seemingly bright future with Turkey for this tournament, the 2010 Olympics and beyond - Ene said, "We have a good [young] generation and every year more are coming. We have veteran players also, and being with this organization with the young players is a great opportunity for them, too. Every year, they are getting stronger."

This subtle evolution, Ene believes is crucial to the team's immediate and longer-term future: "Of course I will change some things that ... were not well done before," he explained, "but I am protecting the chemistry of the team from before. We are going to change some small things, but we are going to play with the same organization defensively and offensively."

What sort of changes can basketball fans expect? "Physically we have to be prepared better than last year," said the coach, "That's important." By dint of the Group A win against defending EuroBasket champions Spain alone, one can see this particular switch made with credit to Ene.

While Ene has one eye firmly fixed on the present competition, he's absolutely not unaware of his basketball history - specifically, what a 2010 Olympic bid would mean to his team and his country. "We so much want to play in these Olympics because we are a country that [last] played there in 1952," reflected Ene. "This generation was second in 2001 and second in 2010, but we've never participated in the Olympics in this era. That's why it's so important."

FIBA