Ankara Kolejliler

The 2020–21 season had looked like the route home: TED Ankara Kolejliler topped the second-tier table when the pandemic cut the campaign short, and no title was handed out.

The team traces back to 1954, when the Turkish Education Association set up a basketball section for its students. Sponsors have come and gone across the decades, from Tiffany Tomato to Maydonoz to Aykon, each stamping a different name on the same red-and-navy shirt, but supporters still call the team what they always have.

Between 1966 and 2009 the club moved in and out of the top division in repeated stints, never quite settling there for long. The one trophy that still gets mentioned is the Turkish Basketball Cup, won in 1972–73 with a final victory over Beşiktaş, a result that sent Kolejliler into the FIBA Cup Winners' Cup the following season. Decades later, in 2013–14, the club reached the Eurocup quarter-finals, its deepest run in European competition.

Locally, the fixture that matters is against Hacettepe Üniversitesi, played out as the Başkent Derbisi, the derby of the capital — a reminder that Ankara has more than one basketball allegiance. Kirk Penney, capped for New Zealand, is among the imports who wore the shirt.

One cup, won in 1973, remains the only major honour on the club's record.