After its most successful season in two decades, Tofas Bursa returns to the 7DAYS EuroCup for a second consecutive season, hoping to build on its domestic success and use its EuroCup debut experience to make a longer run in the competition. Tofas had a promising start to last season, winning three consecutive games – at home against Herbalife Gran Canaria and ASVEL Villeurbanne, on the road at Dolomiti Energia Trento – by a combined margin of 8 points. A 100-84 home win over ratiopharm Ulm gave Tofas a 4-2 record, but the team then lost its last four games and was eliminated, finishing in fifth place in Group D. Tofas had much more success at home, however. The team beat Sakarya and Besiktas to reach its first Turkish Cup final in 18 years before losing against home side Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the battle for the trophy. In the Turkish League, Tofas finished the regular season in second place with a 24-6 record. In the playoffs, coach Orhun Ene's men swept Eskisehir in the best-of-three quarterfinals, then beat Efes in four games in best-of-five semifinals. Pitted against Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul in the best-of-seven finals, Tofas managed to make it interesting by winning Game 3 at home, but Fenerbahce came away with a 4-1 series victory to end Tofas's successful season.

EuroCup

History

Tofas was founded in 1974, and it hard to find a team anywhere that started so successfully. In the 1974-75 season, Tofas finished the local Bursa league in first place with a perfect record and earned promotion to the Turkish second division. A year later, the club earned promotion to the Turkish top flight. Tofas made its European debut in 1978 and had its first major success a year later when the team qualified for the Korac Cup group stage, where its lone victory was a 39-point drubbing of Joventut Badalona. Tofas finished that season in second place in the Turkish League. The first significant blow the club suffered came when it was relegated in 1989, but the very next season it earned promotion back to the top flight after an undefeated season, which re-started its climb to prominence on the European scene. In 1990-91 Tofas played in its first Turkish League playoffs finals, losing to Fenerbahce, and in 1993 won its first Turkish Cup. Tofas was defeated in a two-game Korac Cup final against Aris Thessaloniki in 1997. The 1998-99 season was the most successful in club history as Tofas became the Turkish champion by defeating Efes Pilsen 4-2 in the finals and lifted the Turkish Cup by edging Fenerbahce. The team also made the Saporta Cup quarterfinals that season and followed it up with a Turkish President's Cup victory the following fall, when Tofas also made its EuroLeague debut. Coached by Jasmin Repesa, and with the likes of Steven Rogers, Serkan Erdogan, Slaven Rimac, Mehmet Okur, Rashard Griffith and David Rivers on the floor, Tofas went on to win another Turkish double, beating Efes 4-1 in the playoff finals and trashing Ulker by 18 points to win the national cup. Despite such massive success, financial problems forced Tofas to withdraw from the Turkish first division and start all over. That new start was once again successful, as Tofas won the regional league in 2002 and the Turkish second division in 2003, earning promotion to the first division once again. There, Tofas struggled for consistency and bounced between the first and second divisions several times until it made the first of three consecutive Turkish League playoff appearances in 2012. Another tough season in 2014-15 saw Tofas relegated again, but there was no keeping this club down. Winning promotion for the 2016-17 season once again, Tofas reached the Turkish League playoffs before getting swept in a best-of-three quarterfinal series by Fenerbahce Istanbul, which had just won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague crown. After making even greater steps last season, Tofas is determined to raise the bar higher still and to make even bigger noise in the season to come.