Despite Turkey’s 68-62 win over Senegal in the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Manila, Philippines on Thursday, Turkish national team point guard Ali Muhammed said he was disappointed with his shooting performance.
“As a shooter you have games like that, but these two days I’ve been shooting really terrible.”
“Tonight I just want to come in and get the ball to go down. I couple went down at the very end but I still shot terribly,” he shared.
Muhammed even tweeted about his “terrible” game, saying he had never shot like how he had against Senegal in his entire career.
https://twitter.com/BobbyDixon20/status/751032928713400320
Turkey qualified for the semifinals and are set to take on France on Saturday, but Muhammed said the squad should shoot better than they did against Senegal.
“I feel good, I am happy that we won, but my individual performance, I feel I played terrible. We didn’t shoot the ball well. Have to go back to the gym and make some shots,” the gunslinger added.
Muhammed did explode in the fourth quarter, scoring the team’s last 15 points to fend off Senegal’s late comeback attempt. He finished with 23 points, although shot 6-for-21 from the field.
Turkey as a whole shot only 34.2 percent from the field and missed 13 free throw attempts.
“It’s basketball. You have to get to the gym. It’s a confidence thing,” he said.
Muhammed added that while the squad is going up against a higher-seeded team in France, the mindset should be just winning the match no matter what the cost.
“It’s just another game, just trying to get to the next step. Going to the Olympics, that’s a huge deal. It’s a once in a lifetime (opportunity),” he said.
