The jump from high school or club basketball to college hoops is a big leap. Throw in a 15-hour flight, nine-hour time difference and a new culture. That’s more like an Evel Knievel jump over a few buses.
For three Turkish-born UTRGV basketball players, that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Idil Türk, Tuana Dinç and Onuralp Demirer come from the distant land situated between the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Türk, who is only a sophomore, is actually the veteran of the three. The two others are freshmen this season.
Dinç and Türk knew each other by going through the same club basketball team back home. They weren’t close back then, but have become inseparable as teammates. Dinç says the friendship is way beyond just the court by now.
“We travel together, [coming to and from school and home] so we got really close,” said Dinç, a freshman forward. “Now she’s one of my best friends. I’m gonna go and see her when we are in Turkey, too. We’re always together. I go to her room before mine after my classes.”
The time difference is something all three struggle with. A UTRGV game starting at 7 p.m. Central would start at 4 a.m. in Turkey. This isn’t enough to stop their families from keeping a watchful eye on the Vaqueros.
Türk, a 5-foot-9 guard with a knack for the three-pointer, says her family sacrifices sleep to watch her play.
“They always wake up. They set their alarms and wake up,” she said. “They don’t go to bed until I text them [after the games.] It’s always good to have someone supporting you, behind you. Even if I have bad games, my parents will still encourage me.”
Türk is in her second year but is averaging 20.3 minutes per game and has started in 10 games so far. Her coach, Larry Tidwell, has called her one of the best shooters he’s ever coached. She leads the team in three-pointers with 41, three ahead of senior Shawnte’ Goff.
Her success on the court serves as inspiration for her newcomer teammates. Demirer said he keeps up with Türk’s stats after every game.
“When I go away with the team after coming out from the game, I’ll check the women’s game stats,” he said. “Seeing that she did good just makes me happy. I text her, ‘Good job, keep doing it.’ She likes to work as well; she’s a hard worker. It just makes me feel happy to see that [it pays off] when you work hard. She’s getting the results.”
Demirer has not cracked the starting lineup yet for Head Coach Lew Hill’s men’s team. The freshman knows that hard work is the way to playing time. He’s no stranger to working hard.
“College basketball is not like anything else,” he said. “I knew I had to get better, and the only way to do it is to work. I know that if you want to be successful, you have to make sacrifices. So, I wake up at 5:30 a.m. every day.”
Demirer wakes up that early to get in a few hundred shots before the women’s team starts practice. He’s been on that schedule since coming to UTRGV to improve his game.
When Türk was asked about Demirer’s work ethic, she laughed and said she heard from a few people that maybe it’s a “Turkish” thing.
She put it simply: “I think we just love playing basketball, ball is life.”
