BCL Final 8, Preview: Turk Telekom vs JDA Dijon

BCL Final 8, Preview: Turk Telekom vs JDA Dijon

The second quarterfinal of the BCL Final Eight will see Turk Telekom face JDA Dijon at 20:30 CET.

The second quarterfinal of the BCL Final Eight will see Turk Telekom face JDA Dijon at 20:30 CET.

Turk Telekom roster: http://www.championsleague.basketball/19-20/team/Türk-Telekom#|tab=roster

JDA Dijon roster: http://www.championsleague.basketball/19-20/team/JDA-Dijon#|tab=roster

Coaches’ Quotes

Burak Goren, Turk Telekom:

“We are proud of being part of BCL, concluding last season is very important for us. We were in second division three years ago, and we are here right now. We are ready for this competition.”

“The situation is the same for all the teams, in 45 days everybody tried to prepare an event this important. We had time to get ready, we are ready to play tomorrow and we will do our best tomorrow.”

“Dijon did a very good job, I respect the coach a lot. They have a very good system. We are not the favorites of this game.”

Laurent Legname, JDA Dijon:

“Thank you to BCL for finishing this season on the court. All my players and my staff are happy to be here. For Dijon it’s an amazing things to play against these great teams. We have an opportunity to make something special happen this week.”

“We kept both our point guards, but we changed a lot of pieces in our team. We are not yet at our peak as a team, and it’s the same for everybody else. You never know what can happen in a tournament like this, you think about tomorrow and then after the game we’ll see.”

“I don’t think about being the underdogs, we just focus on our energy and try to do the maximum. At the start of the season there are no favorites nor underdogs.”

Captains’ Quotes

Muhammed Baygul, Turk Telekom:

“It’s great to be here. Thank you to all my teammates that were with us last year. We want to win the cup, we came here for that. I hope we will come out as the champions at the end of this week.”

“Experience can help us in this kind of games, some of us have played big games before.”

“We are a young and energetic team, we will see tomorrow if this will prove to be an advantage for us.”

Axel Julien, JDA Dijon:

“We had to play Novgorod to be here, so we weren’t sure about being here at the start of the preparation. Being part of this Final Eight is good, it’s the first time for our club so I hope it’s gonna be a big competition because last year was great for BCL. Thanks to my former teammates, too.”

“I don’t know if I will start tomorrow, we change a lot of times the starting five. Me and Holston can complete each other, so we will know tomorrow but it’s not a problem. The important part is to finish the game well. My chemistry with Holston is an advantage for us.”

“We had a lot of pressure against Novgorod, we didn’t play our best game but we didn’t care much about the way we won, we just needed the win.”

Facts and stats

– Dijon have been back in official action since mid-September, when they defeated Nizhny Novgorod in Game 3 of their Round of 16 series to punch their ticket to the Final 8. On Friday, they won their French Jeep Elite league opener against ASVEL 81-74 as David Holston and Axel Julien combined for 41 points and 10 assists. Turk Telekom meanwhile are yet to start their 2020-21 Turkish league campaign.

– Turk Telekom, who made their BCL debut this season, had put together a seven-game winning streak prior to the hiatus, the third-longest by any team this season.

– Dijon’s two biggest wins in the BCL came against a Turkish team, both this season against Besiktas Sompo Sigorta. The French team defeated the Istanbul side 98-65 on the road last December and 88-47 at home in February.

– Dijon had a half-time lead in 13 of their 17 BCL games this season, more than any other team; they went on to win 11 of those 13 games, and interestingly both the losses were at the hands of Telekom Baskets Bonn.

– Turk Telekom had the lowest scoring contribution from their bench among the eight teams in the Quarter-Finals, as their second unit averaged 21.5 points per game.

– Turk Telekom and Dijon lead the league in three-point shooting percentage. The Turkish side converted 40.4 percent of their shots from beyond the arc, while the French team shot 39.2 percent from dowtown. Turk Telekom also lead the league in field goal percentage with 50.4, the only team to shoot above 50 percent from the floor.

– Dijon are the only team to average more than 10 steals per game this season (10.5) and the only team to score more than 20 points off turnovers (20.2).

– Kyle Wiltjer leads the league in made field goals, with 107. The Canadian forward averaged 17.9 points per game as the second-leading scorer among the players that are at the Final 8, behind AEK’s Keith Langford.

– Turk Telekom new arrival Keifer Sykes holds the record for most points scored in a single BCL game. Back when he was playing for Sidigas Avellino in January 2019, Sykes scored 43 points against Teksut Bandirma.

– Axel Julien had five BCL games with 10+ assists this season, second only to Marcelinho Huertas (who had six such games); Dijon won their last six BCL games with Axel Julien in the starting five and lost their last three in which he came off the bench.

– David Holston is averaging 6.1 assists per game, the second highest among all players with at least 20 BCL games in the competition (behind Jordan Theodore, who has a BCL career average of 6.3 assists per game).

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