By Bugra Uzar/ info@eurohoops.net
Making the 2020 Olympic Games is quite an important goal for the Turkish national team ahead of the World Cup, according to head coach Ufuk Sarica.
The two top national teams from Europe will get a ticket to the Olympics while the rest will go through the Olympic Qualifiers procedure. Sarica understands that getting to Tokyo via the first route is tricky business.
[Our] status is not very easy. The top two teams from Europe are going to the Olympics. The status is also mixed and not very fair. But as I said, Olympic is our biggest dream. We haven’t been there for a long time. I think we should be there as Turkish basketball. I hope that with this team we will achieve this goal in this World Cup or in the next qualification,” Sarica said during the team’s official presentation.
While Turkey features such players as NBAers Cedi Osman, Ersan Ilyasova and Furkan Korkmaz other European teams like Serbia, France and Greece will also be in full – or near that- strength in the tournament.