USA Basketball 2014 World Cup Preview: #USABMNT vs Turkey (Photo: LetsGoWarriors.com)
BILBAO EXHIBITION CENTRE, BILBAO, SPAIN — Tip-off for USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team (#USABMNT) against Turkey is 12:30PM PDT, here at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre in Bilbao, Spain, where our Poor Man’s Commish will be covering the event, live.
The game will be televised on ESPN.
Omer Asik of the Houston Rockets will lead Turkey. The rest of their 15 man roster includes Ender Arslan, Dogus Balbay, Kerem Tunceri, Baris Ermis, Melih Mahmutoglu, Sinan Guler, Cenk Akyol, Cedi Osman, Emir Preldzic, Baris Hersek, Kerem Gonlum, Furkan Aldemir and Oguz Savas.
Turkey joined FIBA in 1936 and is currently ranked seventh in the world coming into this year’s competition. The head coach of the Turkish National Team is Ergin Ataman. He has won three Turkish Basketball League championships, four Turkish Cups and five Turkish President’s Cups.
After the defeat of Finland last night, shooting guard Klay Thompson of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors said, “Hopefully, we can just carry this momentum tomorrow, facing a good Turkey team. They’ve got one of the better defensive centers in the tournament, Omer, and they’ve got some great Euroleague players. So it’s going to be a tall task for us, but if we just come out and play hard like we did tonight, we should be successful.”
Yesterday’s 59-point win over Finland was the second-largest in World Cup history (formerly known as the “World Championship of Basketball”. In the 1990 World Championship, the USA defeated South Korea by 79 points, 146-67. Yesterday’s win was the widest margin by any NBA player-led Team USA.
Stephen Curry said after the game that Team USA would try to repeat its incredible defensive effort from the night before.
“We haven’t played back-to-back games besides (two games in three nights in) New York,” Curry said, “So we’ve got to bring the same energy and effort tomorrow night against a good Turkish team that we have a lot of history with.”
TURKEY FACTOIDS PROVIDED BY USA BASKETBALL
The USA and Turkey have met one prior time in World Cup play and it was in the 2010 FIBA World Championship gold medal game that the USA won 81-64 (boxscore). This game will see a pair of NBA teammates meet. Anthony Davis of the USA and Turkey’s Omer Asik will both play for USA assistant and New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams in 2014-16. Turkey has eight players back from the 2010 team, the USA features three players from its golden 2010 team.
FIBA World Ranking: #7
How Turkey Qualified: FIBA Wild Card Selection
2013 FIBA Europe Finish: Tie 17th (1-4)
World Cup Appearances: 3
World Cup Overall Record: 18-8 (.692%)
World Cup Finishes: 2nd (2010); 6th (2006); 9th (2002)
World Cup Record vs. USA: 0-1 (64-81, 2010)
Last Senior Team Meeting vs. USA: 2010 WC (64-81)
2012 Olympic Finish: DNP
2013 Head Coach: Bogdan Tanjevic
2013 Key Players In FIBA Europe Championship: Kerem Gonlüm (12.4 ppg., 6.4 rpg.), Ersan Ilyasova (12.2 ppg., 5.0 rpg.), Ender Arslan (11.6 ppg., 3.6 apg.), Emir Preldzic (8.8 ppg., 3.8 rpg., 3.8 apg).
Join us with the #LetsGoWarriorsLive live-tweet starting thirty minutes before tip-off.
[NOTE: Poor Man’s Commish contributed to this report.]
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
