Ahmet Çakı, the young but experienced technical boss of Tofaş, made clear statements.
Mehmet ÇETİNKAYA/ BURSA INTERNET NEWSPAPER/BURSA (İGFA) Ahmet Çakı, the experienced head coach of TOFAŞ, who has been making the people of Bursa love basketball for many years and has been a touchstone, gave important messages about the future of the club while analyzing the past season.
– You also served at Tofaş between the 2012 and 2014 seasons. At that time, the play-offs were bid farewell to the quarter-finals. What would you say about the group of players that you came to on November 26 and are part of a team that you did not set up yourself?
‘Going back to my first years of service, we thought of restructuring at Tofaş as a result of the exchange of views we had during this process. We built the team around our own equity players: Can Altındağlı, Kenan Sipahili, Doğan Şenli, Samet Geyik. Second term Kenan Sipahi went to Fenerbahçe. In this period, while developing the players we have; In the European Cups, we tried to do something as much as we could. It is always difficult to coach a team in the middle of the season, or rather to accept a task. When an offer was made to me, I did not have the slightest hesitation when coming to an organization like Tofaş. Every coach wants to build a team that fits their basketball style.
One of the important issues in coaching is to adapt to all kinds of team chemistry and get the highest efficiency. In the end, I accepted the task because I believed that I could bring out the best from this team and because I was confident in myself. We tried to make changes with my own thoughts. We have been successful from time to time; We could not be successful due to the injuries experienced from time to time and we got results that we did not want. Although we are in the last 8 in the European Cup in the last two weeks; Unfortunately, we were left out of the play-offs in the Turkish League.
– After many years, Tofaş stayed away from the play-offs and finished the league early. Why did this happen?
In the last 6 years that Tofaş moved from the 2nd League to the Super League, it was in the play-offs every year. Of course, our goal this year is to be in the play-offs and to continue our goal of being in the European cups next year; as well as testing ourselves by catching the peak of basketball we played throughout the season. I think the most important reason why we couldn’t achieve this was the decline that came with the injuries experienced in the team after the national team break in the section that started with the Bursaspor match in February and continued with the second matches of the TOP 16 tour in the European Cup. While trying to include our players such as Berk, Pako and Tyler into the team; At the same time, we tried to win the necessary matches and stay in the last 8 of the European cups, and to overcome our target matches without loss. Although we succeeded in this in the Champions League; The losses in the Turkish League caused us to be injured in the play-off goal. After the Tenerife series in which we finished the Champions League matches, we could not achieve this goal when we lost the Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray matches we played at the last minute. Here, Bursaspor Basketball Team and Bahçeşehir’s rise, together with their qualified cadres, made us stay out of the play-offs. After all, although we consider ourselves successful in the Champions League; Of course, it is a failure that we are not in the playoffs. All of us, especially me, should take the necessary lesson and see our shortcomings in order to do better in order to achieve the goal in both the Champions League and the Turkish League next year.
– Should a self-criticism be made about team engineering? What effect would you have on the transfer?
The player must be evaluated in the conditions in which he was transferred. Each player in the Tofaş squad is also considered to be valuable for this team, according to the months of July-August when the transfer was made, players who joined the team. But when you build a team, even if you believe that you bring together talented players, the harmony of the players with each other becomes very important. When that harmony is not at the desired level, even if you have the most talented actors, you cannot get the performances you want from them and achieve the results you want. I think we are a good team as Tofaş this year. However, we couldn’t get the necessary efficiency from some players because there are too many overlapping aspects of the players as talents. If there is a part that we are missing; I wish I could be better physically and athletically in this year’s Turkish League. But I can honestly say that with Tyler Ennis joining us, this team competed in the Turkish League by playing high quality basketball until the last ball against everyone including Fenerbahçe Beko and Anadolu Efes. We also played with the Champions League finalists Manresa and Tenerife until the end. Even though we missed the play-off in the Turkish League; I think we have a lot of things to show for basketball.
– Who were the athletes who fell below or exceeded your expectations?
‘I don’t want to make a classification about who made the players sad or happy. Because there are players that you are happy with from time to time and you are not satisfied with their performance from time to time. The part that I felt missing the most was our physical game and athleticism as a team. As I explained in the previous question, the ups and downs of Pako Cruz, Tyler Ennis and Berk Uğurlu’s return after injury affected us. As a result, all my players, myself and the whole technical team, tried to get maximum efficiency in our order. My players also did their best to the best of their good intentions and abilities. Therefore, I can say that I am satisfied with the performance and struggle of all of them.
– Pako Cruz was the top scorer last year, how did he play in your opinion?
‘Pako Cruz dominated the Turkish League last season and was one of the important scorers. He was the number 2 of our team, which was chosen as the main creator. I think he made the necessary contribution in the offensive direction until he got injured. But when playing against more athletic and physical opponents on defense, his performance dropped. This is normal in a sense. Because while he was playing one game a week with the Afyon team and being a part of the team that aims to stay in the league, the resistance and hardness he saw when he played for a team like Tofaş that planned to be in the play-offs and had goals in Europe was also different. But as I mentioned before, he suffered a severe injury. So it wouldn’t be right to talk about his performance at the end of the season. The part we could do better in team chemistry would be to make Pako’s surroundings tougher. As an answer to your question; Pako was fine before he got injured. After the injury, I can say that he has achieved 80 percent in the last 2 weeks’.
-Tofaş is a team that stands out with its domestic rotation. How did you find the performance of the local players this year?
At Tofaş, a generation stands out in every period. In my first Tofaş term, we featured names such as Samet Geyik, Doğan Şenli and Kenan Sipahi. Afterwards, a team was formed around Berkan Durmaz, Yiğit Arslan and Muhsin Yaşar. Although Berk Uğurlu was not from Tofaş’s infrastructure three years ago; We caught up with this year’s Turkish chemistry by being included in this organization. This year’s earnings were Emre Tanışan and Bora Satır. Although we cannot give Berke Büyüktuncel the time we want, I think he has also improved. But I think the most important thing is to bring this domestic rotation forward next year, with players such as Ege Demir, Kıvanç, Batın and Ali alongside Emre, Berke, Bora, in order to catch a new generation. Just like the names in previous years, I believe it will be an important task for this club to provide the Turkish player base for 3-5 years. I think we have benefited from Berk before the injury, from Muhsin in the last 2 months and from Yigit in general terms. But in the case of missing the target in the Turkish League, I as a coach and Turkish players; So I can say that we Turks should take a little more responsibility.’
– Do you put Captain Berk Uğurlu in a different place?
‘Berk Uğurlu is an important player for me as well as a valuable player for Tofaş. The development he has experienced since coming to the club three years ago, his coming to the A National Team level as a Turkish playmaker, and the fact that he is still the way to go, reveals how valuable a player Berk is in this sense. Before coming to Tofaş, while he was in the National Team, Berk was more than a player who only played doubles and scored; I thought he had a skill that could bring a lot of difference to the game by putting pressure on the ball and going briskly between two hoops. We have already tried to highlight this aspect, and January, when we won many matches, was a month in which Berk reached its maximum. One of the most severe injuries experienced in our team this year happened to Berk. If that position in the quarter-final match of the Turkish Cup we played with Fenerbahçe had happened to another player, he could have closed the season. Although the captain could not reach his level in January on his return, it should be considered normal. Berk has a style that is different from other quarterbacks, which makes him him. He was a Turkish actor who always made a difference when he featured him.
– What do you think of the long cast?
We had two 5s that complemented each other, like Jeremy Simmons and Muhsin. Muhsin is a player who makes a difference mostly in offense, and Jeremy is a player that contributes more in defense and manning. In the first period I came, I think that I could not get the necessary contribution from Muhsin, especially in defense. As a result, long players needed more time in the changes we made on the defense side with the change of coach. But in the last 2 months of the season, we saw their great contribution to us. The fact that Jeremy Simmons was the only player on the long side that we got the physical bonus added to his load even more. We used Zubcic and Emre as the number 4 position. From time to time, we used four shorts by pulling Elgin Cook to number 4. I chose this because we had a hard time stopping the duo games played with 4, which is the most frequently used against us by our opponents. In this sense, the other name we transferred was Eigirdas Zukauskas. Even though it took time for him to get into shape as he came without training for about a month due to the war in Ukraine, he contributed to us in the matches he played. I said that I found the physicality of the team lacking in general. We clearly felt this lack in the long part.
