Turkish Basketball Cup 2022: schedule, teams, and everything else you need to know / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: BasketNews.lt/D.Repečka Credit BasketNews.lt/D.Repečka

All around Europe, it's the time for a little break in the domestic leagues, which will be filled by the local cups, and the Turkish Cup, also known as Bitci Turkish Cup, is no exception.

2-pointers this season

56%21,2Points made:21,2Accuracy:56,2%Place in standings:7Record max:28Record min:16Most made 2FGs:Jeremy SimmonsTeamBCLStatisticsSchedule

In just a few days, teams will fight for the first domestic title of the season. The tension and the excitement that the domestic cups generate are something that can't usually be found during the regular season of the local leagues.

If you're missing some info or details about these competitions, there's no need to worry because we've got you covered.

In this article, we will focus on the Turkish Cup. The games of the two-staged competition will take place 15-16 February for the quarter-finals and 18-20 February for the semis and the final.

For the first time since 2016, the final stage of the Turkish Cup finals will be held in Bursa. Due to the suggestions that came from the clubs, the Basketball Turkish Cup for 2021 was not organized.

Format & Teams

Like many other counterparts all around Europe, The Turkish Cup, also known as Bitci Turkish Cup 2022, is effectively a Final Eight tournament that works with the same logic of a single-game-based elimination format.

The slight difference is that the quarter-finals are played not in a single venue, but in different locations, based on a draw taken on the 7th of February.

Therefore, there will be the home and away sides for the quarter-final games, regardless of the seeds. The winners of these games will advance to the semi-finals.

However, seeds will still retain their meaning as the first four seeded teams could not match with each other for the quarter-finals.

According to this new format that has been in effect since 2019, the winner of the 1st seeded team's matchup (Tofas-Fenerbahce Beko) will play against the winner of the 4th seeded team (Gaziantep Basketbol-Galatasaray NEF) will play each other.

By the same account, 2nd seeded team's matchup winner (Anadolu Efes-Pinar Karsiyaka) will play against 3rd seeded team's matchup winner(Bahcesehir Koleji-Darussafaka) in the semi-finals.

That brings some potential spicy matchups between Fenerbahce Beko and Galatasaray NEF in the semis, as well as Fenerbahce Beko and Anadolu Efes in the finals.

The semi-finalists will then gather in Bursa during 18-20 February, where things will converge to a purely Final Four format.

Teams

The Cup contenders were decided according to the league standings after 15 games(first part of the season)

Fenerbahce Beko Anadolu Efes Darussafaka Galatasaray NEF Pinar Karsıyaka Bahcesehir Koleji Gaziantep Basketbol Tofas

Credit Patrick Albertini/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Schedule

Quarterfinals

February 15: Gaziantep Basketbol vs Galatasaray Nef (62-77) February 15: Tofas vs Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (88-93) February 16: Bahcesehir Koleji vs Darussafaka Istanbul (80-88) February 16: Anadolu Efes Istanbul vs Pinar Karsiyaka (87-64)

Semifinals

February 18: Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce (49-64) February 18: Darussafaka vs Efes (71-96)

Final

February 20: Fenerbahce vs Efes 15:00 CET

Interesting facts

Anadolu Efes have the most titles and final appearances in the tournament's history (11 titles out of 15 finals).

Fenerbahce Beko comes second with 11 final appearances, and 7 titles were 6 of them came starting with 2010, and 3 of them were won after the arrival of Zeljko Obradovic to the Fenerbahce bench.

In fact, in the last 6 years, there been the only club to win the Cup other than Anadolu Efes and Fenerbahce Beko: Banvit (2017)

But also, after 2015, there is only one edition where Anadolu Efes and Fenerbahce Beko met in the final of the competition(2019, won by Fenerbahce Beko)

Dark Horses

Doubters gonna doubt, but there might be surprises as well.

Pinar Karsiyaka will be the first challenger of Anadolu Efes in the quarter-finals. They were among the four teams that beat the EuroLeague title holders in the domestic league, most recently on the 23rd of January.

Besides, they were only one Bryant Dunston block away from winning against them in the first meeting of the season in Istanbul.

Tofas are a best-stealing team in the domestic sphere, and they will be the home side if they manage to advance to the Final Four.

The problem: they need to overcome a red-hot Fenerbahce Beko.

Despite being one of the biggest clubs in the country, Galatasaray are having some tough days not only in the football department but also in the basketball department as well. They lost four games in a row and five out of six, so they need some morale-boosting results in the Cup immediately.

Gaziantep Basketbol is making its comeback to the Cup after 2019, where they lost in the quarter-finals. Interestingly, they won 8 games away from home, including a win against Efes in Istanbul compared to 5 wins in Gaziantep.

Bahcesehir is making their 2nd appearance in the competition, and they have to beat Darussafaka for the first time this season in their third try if they aim to advance further.

One of the best defenses of BSL and three times runner of Turkish Cup Darussafaka will once again try to overpunch the opponents and finally win the competition.

Throwback to last year

During the previous Cup in 2020, Anadolu Efes was surprisingly beaten by Darussafaka Tekfen in the quarter-finals. Fenerbahce beat Darussafaka in the final 74-71 as Luigi Datome was named a tournament's MVP. It was the 7th Fenerbahce Cup.

Thank you for being with us! Subscribe to BN+ and browse ad-free.