Former Wisconsin basketball star wins Turkish League Championship

Former Wisconsin basketball star wins Turkish League Championship

Former Wisconsin basketball standout Nigel Hayes-Davis captured a Turkish League Championship and MVP honors in Turkey’s Basketbol Süper Ligi Finals last week.

Following 30 weeks of competition representing Fenerbahçe Beko in Istanbul, the former Badger star helped his squad defeat Anadolu Efes, another Istanbul-based team, in the top men’s professional basketball division of the Turkish basketball league system.

The Toledo, Ohio, native averaged over 17 points per game en route to finals MVP honors, including a 28-point performance in an 11-point Game 1 victory.

Earlier this season, the 6-foot-8 forward dropped 50 points against ALBA Berlin, breaking the all-time single-game scoring record in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

Hayes-Davis arrived Istanbul in July 2022 after a one-year stint with FC Barcelona, with which he averaged 4.1 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 37 games (16 starts) en route to winning the Spanish Cup. Before venturing oversees, he also appeared in nine NBA contests during brief stints with the Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers

During his four-year tenure at UW, Hayes-Davis was named Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year (2014), two-time third-team All-Big Ten (2015, 2017) and first-team All-Big Ten (2016).