By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Coming out of the friendly loss to Greece, Furkan Korkmaz talked to Eurohoops about the next challenges for the Turkey senior national team.
Korkmaz, 25, ended up with 22 points, ten rebounds, and one assist in 30 minutes of action Friday evening. The double-double fell short as the hosts of the 31st International Tournament Acropolis Aegean won the preparation game and captured the top spot in the standings of the three-day tournament hosted in the Greek capital’s OAKA.
“All of our games have been intense and also our opponents have scored a lot of points,” he said recapping the stretch of tuneup matchups over the last few weeks, “We got to fix that. But we have time. We have to stay all together as a team. And we just have to react in the EuroBasket and the World Cup Qualifiers.”
On a 1-2 W-L tally, Ergin Ataman’s settled for third place in the four-team tournament. Turkey recorded three wins and three losses as official games take over the schedule next week.
“I have good memories from Greece,” Korkmaz told Eurohoops referring to solid showings in the country at the junior level, “Today, I tried to help my team win.”
“I am just trying to be a good player and do my best for the team,” he added switching focus on the 2022 EuroBasket and preceding 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.
Working to make it to next summer’s World Cup, Turkey will visit Latvia and host Serbia on 25 and 28 August, respectively. In EuroBasket’s Group A, the opponents are Montenegro, Bulgaria, Georgia, Belgium, and Spain.