Alpella B.K.

Alpella is a Turkish basketball team founded in 1975 with the name Ülkerspor. The name was coming from the sponsors Ülker Food Group. In 2006 Ülker Group made a sponshorship deal with Fenerbahçe and gave its name to Fenerbahçe, which became Fenerbahçe Ülker. Because two different clubs are not allowed to have such similar, the old Ülkerspor renamed itself to Alpella Basketbol Kulübü.

Fenerbahçe Ülker youth and reserve players "(exp. Ömer, Serkan, Birkan, Burak, Atyaç etc.)" play for Alpella. Alpella plays in a 3,500-seat arena, called the Caferağa Spor Salonu.

Ülkerspor history

Ülkerspor was created in 1993 by buying a Turkish League spot from Nasaşspor, who was an Izmit team. It won Turkish League titles in 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2006 with greats including Orhun Ene, Kevin Rankin and more recently, Mirsad Turkcan and Serkan Erdoğan.

Ülkerspor made the Top 16 for five consecutive seasons between 2002 and 2006, beating all the best European teams in the process and showing it was an important team in the competition. Ülkerspor had its best finish when surviving a tough Top 16 group to make the 2005 Euroleague Quarterfinal Play-offs, where it lost against PBC CSKA Moscow. Ülkerspor also won five Turkish President's Cup and three Turkish Cup titles between 2001 and 2005. Things got serious again in the 2005-06 season, as Ülkerspor conquered its fourth Turkish League title before merging with Fenerbahçe Istanbul. Youth team of Ülkerspor was changed name as Alpellaspor and admitted to Turkish League in 2006. Alpellaspor played 2 seasons in the legaue and relegated to Second League after finishing second from last in 2007-2008 season.

Current men's squad

"As of September 2006"

Coach: flagicon|Turkey Alaeddin Yakan

Achievements

Turkish Championship

*as Ülkerspor (4): 1995, 1998, 2001, 2006 [ [http://www.tbf.org.tr/tbfweb/tbfweb2.nsf/TBFV1_Sampiyonlar_Form?OpenForm&Lig=1 Men's Turkish League Champions] ]

Turkish Cup

*as Ülkerspor (3): 2003, 2004, 2005 [ [http://www.tbf.org.tr/tbfweb/tbfweb2.nsf/TBFV1_Sampiyonlar_Form?OpenForm&Lig=9 Men's Turkish Cup Champions] ]

President’s Cup

*as Ülkerspor (6): 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 [ [http://www.tbf.org.tr/tbfweb/tbfweb2.nsf/TBFV1_Sampiyonlar_Form?OpenForm&Lig=7 Men's Turkish President's Cup Champions] ]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.tblstat.net/td.asp?t=2 Statistics on tblstat.net] en icon
* [http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=TUR&Team=191 Alpella Roster by Eurobasket]
* [http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=TUR&team=191&option=Alpella%20Istanbul%20%20(TUR-TBL)&Cntr=TUR&logo=ulker.gifFormer Alpella Players by Eurobasket]