Unbeaten CSKA expect battle in Abdi Ipekci

ISTANBUL (Euroleague) - Anadolu Efes have met their pre-season aims so far in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.

Emerging Turkish stars like Cedi Osman and Furkan Korkmaz and Croatia's biggest young talent, Dario Saric, have received a lot of playing time under one of the great coaches in European basketball, Dusan Ivkovic.

Veterans like Dontaye Draper, Stratos Perperoglou and Stephane Lasme have provided big plays and leadership.

They have won important games against Real Madrid, Nizhny Novgorod, Zalgiris Kaunas and Unicaja Malaga, just to name to four.

The triumph over Madrid was especially sweet because Osman, who is pictured left below alongside point guard Dogus Balbay, showed he could not only play against one of the top teams in Europe but excel.

Osman, the MVP of the U20 European Championship last year after leading Turkey to the title, also showed flashes of his immense talent with the senior team at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain while helping Turkey reach the Quarter-Finals.

With two wins in as many games in the Top 16, at Laboral Kutxa and last week at home to Unicaja Malaga, Efes have built a platform that could ultimately see them advance further in the competition.

As good as they have been at times this season, though, Efes will have to be exceptional on Thursday night if they are going to clinch a third straight win in this phase of the Euroleague because next up is CSKA Moscow.

The Russian giants have been flat out awesome, winning all 12 of their games in Europe.

CSKA Moscow coach Dimitris Itoudis has arguably the most talented squad in the Euroleague, with national team players of Russia (Vitaly Fridzon, Andrey Vorontsevich and Sasha Kaun), Serbia (Milos Teodosic), France (Nando de Colo), Georgia (Manuchar Markoishvili) and powerful Americans like Sonny Weems, Kyle Hines, Aaron Jackson and Demetris Nichols.

Even so, when Itoudis takes his team to Abdi Ipekci, he can expect to receive the best punch of Efes.

"They are coached by Dusan Ivkovic, my good friend and a teacher for many modern European coaches," Itoudis said. 

"He did great job of building the team this year. 

"Efes had some ups and downs this season but we will be very attentive. 

"We know we come to Istanbul for a big fight. Still we are playing and practicing well and we will be ready."

If Efes can spring a surprise and knock off the side that is the best in Europe, according to Ivkovic, it could propel the Turkish outfit to greater things.

If CSKA win, no one will be surprised, and certainly not Ivkovic.

"This is not by their players, by their games. 

"They are the first team in scoring among the other teams by 88.58 points per game and percentage, 50.13 percent field goals and also they are in the second position in the assists category with 22.25 assists per game. 

"So it will be a big challenge for us. CSKA Moscow is also a very talented team." 

FIBA