By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Darussafaka has been on a great run so far this season and they started off the new year with some important wins. They took down Fenerbahce and Galatasaray in the Turkish League while they also eliminated the back-to-back Basketball Champions League winners Hereda San Pablo Burgos.
Eurohoops’ Mehmet Bahadir Akgun and Semih Tuna caught up with Selcuk Ernak for an interview and Dacka head coach was happy to oblige.
Darussafaka was very convincing against San Pablo Burgos and taking out the defending champions is never easy. However, coach Ernak revealed a part of the meticulous preparation and brainstorming his squad and staff went through.
“We were in a situation of a completely blind shot. We did something like this. Coach Olmos previously coached the Breogan team. We worked with that team. We used Breogan’s analysis to understand what he prefers in principle. Of course, we also talked to some scouts to get information about the coach. We tried to guess how he would plan to play basketball. There were things that really worked within the orders of Burgos. We calculated that he would not change them. However, we mostly highlighted the characteristics of the main players, creative players, players that we may encounter on the court as problems. This worked very well for us both in Istanbul and in Spain.”
Taking out the back-to-back champs instantly raises the bar on what a team can achieve and what is expected from them. That said, the coach has no idea where the ceiling is at the moment.
“Believe me, I don’t know. When we signed a three-year deal with Basketball CL, I said that we could build an ambitious, winning team that went step by step, but things did not go that way. I had calculated to keep a certain amount of players in the squad of the first year, to make certain reinforcements on it in the second year, and to make a final move in the third year, but all of our players left. We started from scratch, from scratch. The three-year margin dropped from the head to two years. There is the same danger next year. As I said before, we want to keep our players. We can hold all of them, and we may not hold any of them. This includes local players. Therefore, wherever you say the ceiling is, I can’t see that picture right now,” he said and added.
“If I try to evaluate this season only, we have TOFAS, Manresa, and Treviso in our group. These are all teams that can aim to go to the Final Eight or even the Final Four. Therefore, there is no room for us to relax and breathe. But I also have this belief: Teams that come out of such tough groups become much more productive and more rhythmic in later stages.”
And if his team somehow succeeds in reaching the Final Four, coach Ernak would consider it the best season of his career.
“Now, if we can finish the Turkish League in the top four or five, if we can pass one round in the playoffs, if we can make it to the Final Four in BCL, then I’d consider it the best season of my career.”
The coach also praised his young players and noted that he would much rather use them than go and search for additional reinforcements at this point of the season.
“Well, at the beginning of the season, frankly, I had such an intention, but at this stage, God forbid, I don’t think of any reinforcements. We have 2-3 very good young players. There is Ege and Bora Yasar, who were born in 2003, and Eren, who was born in 2001. I want to play them rather than reinforcements.”
That is also doable due to having a few very good individuals like Gabriel Olaseni and Troy Caupain. Coach Ernak especially mentioned the latter, saying Caupain has the potential to move on to Euroleague, although Dacka will try to keep him.
“I especially see Troy Caupain at EuroLeague level. I’ve been telling you this since we first started talking to him. Let me give you some information, when we won the last Burgos match, we went to the press conference together. I told Troy very clearly: ‘A lot of EuroLeague teams will have their eyes on you offensively, but I don’t think any EuroLeague team will sign you with this defense.’ He didn’t quite understand whether I was speaking allusively, implying or trying to warn him. We laughed a little.
But I will tie it to this: He is a player with 100% EuroLeague potential, but if I think about his performance this season, I think he is not there yet. At the end of the season, there will be those who prefer it. If I coach a EuroLeague team, I would like to see Troy Caupain there, but I make such a choice because I know him very well. From the outside, we’ll see if a coach who doesn’t know or compares with other players would prefer it. Of course we will also try our best to keep him.”