The Turkish side defeated Monaco 3-2 in the playoffs
Fenerbahce back at the Final Four after five-year absence
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Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul is the third team to make it to the 2024 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, joining Real Madrid and Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens. Saras Jasikevicius’s squad finished with a 20-14 regular-season record, good for sixth position, and then knocked out third-placed AS Monaco in the playoffs by winning 3-2. In doing so, the Turkish side has become the first-ever team to win a Game 5 as the road team. Having last made it to the Final Four in 2019, Fenerbahce will play the semifinals in Berlin, Germany, against Panathinaikos on May 24.
Journey to the 2024 Final Four
Fenerbahce, which started the season with Dimitris Itoudis as head coach, went 5-1 through the first six games of the 2023-24 EuroLeague season. One of the keys to that strong start was its home form, winning four games at Ulker Sports and Events Hall in that stretch. The problem is that Fenerbahce could not carry those level of performances on the road, losing four straight games – all on the road – between Rounds 7 and 10. Yet, back in Istanbul in Round 11, Fenerbahce became the first team in the EuroLeague to defeat Real Madrid this season, winning 100-99 in an overtime classic.
Two more road losses would follow, however, making it six straight defeats away from home. Fenerbahce was a perfect 5-0 at home but 1-7 on its travels as it continued to show Jekyll and Hyde-type performances. The club decided to part ways with Coach Itoudis and in came Coach Jasikevicius, who won two home games – improving Fenerbahce to 7-0 at Ulker Sports and Events Hall – before emerging victorious twice on the road in the final double-round week of 2023. Fenerbahce was starting to show some consistency at last.
A first home defeat arrived in the first game of 2024, but Fenerbahce immediately responded with three home wins. While Fenerbahce would keep winning it home, its road problems from earlier in the season returned as the Turkish outfit went 1-3 away from Istanbul in January and February. Nevertheless, Jasikevicius’s men showed what they can do on any given night by going to WiZink Center and handing first-placed Real Madrid just its second home defeat of the campaign. One week later, there was a home win against FC Barcelona in Round 30 that allowed Fenerbahce to dream of home-court advantage in the playoffs, but a 1-3 end to the regular season saw the team slip to sixth position.
Once the playoffs got underway, Fenerbahce stunned Monaco by winning at Salle Gaston Medecin 91-95 in overtime in Game 1. Forward Nigel Hayes-Davis ended up being the named Game 1 MVP after leading Fenerbahce with 19 points and 7 rebounds. Tyler Dorsey, Nick Calathes and Nate Sestina all came up big in the victory, too. Monaco managed to even the series in Game 2, triumphing 93-88, but Fenerbahce quickly seized the advantage again back in Istanbul by securing an 89-78 win in Game 3, with Calathes, Tarik Biberovic, Marko Guduric and Scottie Wilbekin all impressing. There was a 62-65 loss in Game 4 on its home floor, but Fenerbahce went to Monaco and beat the Monegasques 79-80 in overtime in Game 5 on the back of strong performances by Calathes, Biberovic and Calathes.
Fenerbahce's Final Four history
The 2017 EuroLeague champion first reached the Final Four in 2015 and played in five consecutive Final Fours between 2015 and 2019. Fenerbahce has gone 3-2 in semifinals, reaching the championship game in 2016, 2017 and 2018. This will be the second time that Fenerbahce has taken part at the Final Four in Berlin, as the 2016 edition saw the Turkish club defeat Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 88-77 in overtime in the semifinals before falling 96-101 in overtime to CSKA Moscow in the championship game.
Fenerbahce made up for its championship game heartbreak in 2016 by returning to the title game one year later, and this time it came out on top after beating Olympiacos Piraeus 80-64. In 2018, Fenerbahce would make it to the championship game for the third year in a row, but on that occasion it lost to the Luka Doncic-led Real Madrid, 85-80.
Final Four experience
Coach Jasikevicius, a four-time EuroLeague champion as a player, is heading to his fourth straight Final Four appearance as a head coach, having gone to three in a row with Barcelona between 2021 and 2023. He also took Zalgiris Kaunas to the Final Four in 2018. The Lithuanian tactician has reached one championship game, losing with Barcelona to Anadolu Efes Istanbul in 2021.
On the playing roster, Nick Calathes became a EuroLeague champion in 2011, Sertac Sanli did so in 2021, and Melih Mahmutoglu is the only remaining member from Fenerbahce’s 2017 triumph. Calathes has reached the Final Four on four occasions and Sanli has played at the Final Four three times, while Tyler Dorsey, Nigel Hayes-Davis and Tarik Biberovic have both made it one time apiece. No one else on the roster has played at the Final Four.