BigDirty

Efes (2-1) played against Türk Telekom (3-0) today. Surprisingly Efes lost rather clearly 71-86. Player of the game was ex-ALBA Berlin player Michael Wright with 22 points and 6 rebounds. Cenk played 5:38 took one shot and missed it, he also had one foul, but nothing else.

box score

Efes had their first Euroleague game today. They had to play in Croatia against the team of Cibona Zagreb. They lost 85-93. Cenk did not play but was on the bench.

box score

Efes won 91-75 against Beykoz today. Cenk played 20:28, had 0 points, was 0-1 from the field, had 3 rebounds and 1 turnover. I guess Cenk played so much today because they released Rashad Wright and new signing Scoonie Penn wasn't able to play yet.

Freije is playing in Germany for the Artland Dragons (2nd place last year and currently 3-1), he's averaging 8.8 pts (only fifth best on his team, they expect more from him) and 5.5 reb while shooting 40.7% from the field.

By the way ex-Hawk Dijon Thompson is playing for my hometown team and he is rocking so far 16.5 pts, 7 reb, 2.5 ast, 1.5 stl, 61.9.% FG and a league leading 22.75 average efficiency. He had one really perfect game with 22 pts, 9 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl 6-6 2FG, 3-3 3FG, 1-1 FT and 35 efficiency.

Efes had their 2nd game today, this time against the current champion and main rival Fenerbahce. They lost 72-75. Cenk was on the bench for the whole 40 minutes.

box score

I think Cenk just doesn't have the mental toughness and playing 82 NBA games would only make it worse in my eyes, he's like Sebastian Deisler (only a lot worse of course).

I don't think that the problems are on Efes side, they let him play 18 minutes per turkish game last year, which is almost half a game and for a 19 year old that is a very good amount of playing time.

I guess he doesn't play as much this year because of his mental problems, the stronger Efes roster, the stronger turkish players on the roster and because he announced that he wanted to play for the Hawks this year, I mean why should they try to develop him if he already said that he wants to leave as soon as possible, his production is obviously not very important for their success.

By the way here is the box score from the first regular season game, Cenk played 10:51.

According to these stats Aldridge made 21 of his 29 points when Horford was on the court (7-14 FG).

Zaza 10 (4-7)

Smith 18 (6-11)

Shelden 9 (3-6)

Efes had their first regular season game today and won 89-58. I haven't found a box score yet. Cenk had 6 points this time.

Belediye: Lorenzo Gordon 14, Hakan 18, Ufuk, Kevin Johnson 10, Keith Simmons 7, Arda 7, Güven, Bora 2, Dominick Meija, Ismail

Efes: Kerem 15, Loren Woods 2, Andrews Nicholas 7, Rashad Wright 8, Mustafa 6, Andre Hutson 16, Ender 5, Cenk 6, William Gregory 12, Ermal 12

OMG you have got to be kidding me. First Dunn nearly comes into the endzone. Then they lose 5-6 yards. Then Leftwich has a wide open lane to run it in, but instead he throws an incomplete pass. Then on 4th Leftwich gets sacked with one hand. Why does this team keep finding ways to blow? I guess next game the offense will be stellar but the defense will give up 200 running and 300 passing yards.

I think Gandy might be done for the season.

Offtopic: I like how US fans applaud when a player of the other team is carried out, in Europe they would have most likely booed the hell out of him.

Is the offense trying to lose this game on purpose? The defense gives them chance after chance after chance, but they always blow it.

It would be so nice if the O and the D show up in the same game.

But as pathetic as the offense has been, with 2:27 remaining we still have a chance to win the game so GO FALCONS!

Our O-Line is horrible today, this way the D will be tired in no time.

EDIT: Ooh, nice punt fake.

Efes lost against Minnesota 83-81. It seems that this was a very ugly game, I doubt that I'll watch it later.

FG% 34% - 35%

3PT% 33% - 28%

FT% 60% - 57%

Reb 68 - 47

box score

Cenk played 6:58 (didn't play in 2nd half I think), took one shot and missed it, had one rebound, one block and one foul.

It's a couple of years old, but this is the first time I've seen it, it's from the ACB dunk contest. Forward to the 2:35 mark.

http://acbtv.acb.com/video/div/24

Started my franchise, lost first game against Mavs 115-88.

The trading engine as unrealistic as hell. Look at the offers I got for Wright:

Wright Aldridge

Wright Morrison

Wright Giricek

Wright Salmons

Wright Mihm

Unfortunately I don't take advantge of a bad trading engine, Aldridge sure would've been a nice addition.

Alley Oops = L2 + x (at least on PS3, but PS2 should be the same)

Just played an overtime game with the Suns against the Clippers and won for the first time. Playing with the Suns seems much faster than with the other teams I've played with so far.

Nash makes all kinds of crazy passes.

Try to shoot with Marion, it's terrible, you never know what you'll get.^^

This time I made 53% of my shote while holding the Clippers to 43%.

I think I'll start my Hawks franchise next, surprisingly it seems like I can use 12 minute quarters, cause my overtime game was with 10 minute quarters and both teams scored in the 90s while playing kinda fast.

Ok, making close baskets with the right stick seems to be better, with the square button I hit 40-45%, with the right stick I hit 60-65%.

Now if I could only choose my shots wiser, the stats show that my release is perfect 91% of the time, but my shot selection is poor.

Played with the Celtics against the Wiz. Man it's not easy deciding who to throw it with when you have three superstars . That Garnett kid is quite the formidable inside scorer. I held Arenas to 8-21 from the field, but he dished out 13 assists, Stevenson was 9-11 or so, my CPU teammates didn't step up on defense. Still looking for my first win, but until now this game is entertaining even when I'm losing.

http://www.videogamesplus.com/

Until now I've bought three games from them, the longest I had to wait was 5 days. The games are a good 10 euros cheaper than in Germany, don't know if they're cheaper than in the US.

Just read on the 2K forums that layups go in more likely if you press the shot stick towards the basket, I'll try that out later.

First off let me say that Canada is awesome, I ordered the game on Monday and it arrived today, when I order something from the UK or the US I have to wait 2-6 weeks for things to arrive, but Canada is cheap and fast.

Played a 4 minute per quarter game with the Hawks.

Horford is a beast inside, you can really score well with him.

Law can shoot.

Made a three with Marv, the announcers said something like "the Hawks get a lot of criticism for picking him instead of Paul or Deron, but he has all the tools to become a special player", that was a nice touch.

Speedy is useless, comes in and makes two turnover, completely his fault, it can't be my skills, nope he just sucks.

Chillz shot is ugly.

After the game you can not only watch the top 3 plays of the game, but you can watch highlights from every single player that was on the court and did something meaningful like scoring or rebounding, awesome.

I really like how the 2k basketball games always analyse your playing style, it really helps you to improve your game.

Played a 2nd game with random teams. I got the 76ers and had to play against the Jazz. Are the 76ers just crap or what? They have no scorers apart from Iggy. Posting up with Dalembert or Jason Smith is very different than posting up with Horford, with Horford you make baskets, with those two guys you make turnovers. Andre Miller is not bad though. Okur has a killer shot.

The only negative point was, that I seemed to miss a lot of layups, but when I used the shot stick instead of the square button, it worked better, will have to observe the next games if I'm doing something wrong or if it is the game.

The game gets a , I just wish I had a HD TV, it's really hard to read the fatigue numbers on my screen.

I'm still undecided if I should wait for a roster update before I start my franchise.

Please not Pavlovic, he makes so many stupid plays that you would have to post this fella all the time.

By the way Efes will play a friendly game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on October 6th. NBA TV will show the game on tape delay starting at 5:30 PM ET (link).

The girlfriend of my best friend visits the UC Berkeley for the next 6 months. She's already there but she has trouble finding an appartement to rent in area of the university. I was asked to find help on the message boards I visit. So does anyone here live in the San Francisco area or does anyone know a website where you can look for appartements that are available for rent?

She's looking for one room a $900.

Today Efes won 92-58 against Darüssafaka. Since it was a blowout everybody played 10-15 minutes, except Cenk it seems, he played 4:43, took no shot and his only stat that was not 0 was his foul count. Top Scorer was Andre Hutson with 13 followed by Loren Woods with 12.

What the hell are you talking about? They're ranked 21st in total defense.

box score

Cenk played 10:31, had 3 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 steal and was 1-2 from the field.

Efes won their second cup game 87-68 against Karsiyaka. Top Scorer for Efes was again Drew Nicholas with 18 points, followed by Ender Arslan with 15. Cenk again had three points. A complete box score isn't out yet. Efes plays against Darüssafaka tomorrow, another cup game.

Efes: Drew Nicholas 18, Loren Woods 8, Cenk Akyol 3, Kenny Gregory 13, Mustafa Abi 3, Kerem Gönlüm 6, Rashad Wright 9, Serkan Erdogan, Ermal Kurtoglu 6, Ender Arslan 15, Andre Hutson 6

Karsiyaka: Gökper Gen, Asim Pars 5, Bans Ermis 5, Berkay Sahilloglu 3, Erhan Yetim 2, Gary Neal 8, Can Terzioglu, Volkan Cetintahra 8, Valentin Pastal 8, Quinton Hosley 16, Sean Marshall 13