AUBURN — One of the first questions Troy Barnies asked when he got to Istanbul, Turkey, was where he could find the weight room.

The question raised some eyebrows among his teammates and coaches. Professional basketball is big in Turkey, and the country has produced several NBA players (Hedo Turkoglu, Mehmet Okur and former Boston Celtic Semih Erden among them). But in a league that includes carpet and cologne salesmen, strength training isn’t a high priority.

Spending thousands of hours in the weight room helped Barnies win Maine’s Mr. Basketball honor while at Edward Little High School. It helped him earn a scholarship to the University of Maine and become a captain for the Black Bears. It helped him get a contract to play professionally in Turkey. And he figures it will help him get out of Turkey.

“This is really my resumé year,” said Barnies, who hopes this is the first step in getting to the NBA. “I’ve got four more months to show what I can do.”

His first three months playing for Istanbulspor behind him, Barnies returned home this week for a one-week break. He’s been homesick since he left on Sept. 25, even though he’s kept in constant touch with friends and family via Skype and Facebook.

“It’s so nice to be home for a week,” he said. “I leave Monday, so every single day I’ve been trying to take advantage of it.”

He couldn’t make it home for Christmas because Istanbulspor played that day. Barnies scored 24 points and pulled down seven rebounds in a 76-68 win over Gelisim. Eurosport.com termed it “a minor upset.”

“The best player for the winners was American forward Troy Barnies,” eurosport.com said.

Barnies’ Christmas performance was one of the best in a slew of strong outings. He is second on the team in scoring, averaging 13.8 points per game, and first in rebounding (7.8 per game).

Those numbers are more impressive considering his playing time has often been limited. Turkish teams are allowed to have only two Americans on their roster, and only one can be on the floor at a time during a game.

Fitting in

It took a little time for Barnies to learn the European style of play. It’s taken him even longer to adapt to a new country and culture.

He said he’s luckier than most American players in Turkey — he can pass for a Turk if he stays away from the razor blade for a few days.

“When I don’t shave, which is most of the time there, they assume I’m Turkish, so I get the same treatment as everyone else there,” he said.

But fitting in as a foreigner is still difficult. He has an interpreter assigned to him and he has picked up the language pretty quickly. He gets along well with his teammates and goes out with them occasionally, but many of them are in their 30s and have other jobs and families.

“Some guys sell cologne and they have their own stores. Some guys sell carpets. Basketball is not their primary source of income,” said Barnies, 22, who is the youngest on the team. “They all have kids. They’re married. They all have different lives, you know?”

Istanbulspor plays in a Division 2 league, the Turkish Second Basketball League (TB2L). The team is popular with the locals, often filling its 750-seat gym beyond capacity. And Barnies is one of its most popular players. Road games are played in arenas ranging from NBA size to the equivalent of Maine middle schools.’

Because of his 6-foot-7 frame and versatility, Barnies plays three positions — both forward spots and center. Teams typically like to split the time for their American players evenly (games consist of four 10-minute quarters), but Barnies has been playing so well that his playing time has increased. Istanbulspor has already released three of his fellow Americans (it has just brought in a fourth, 6-foot-7 forward Korvotney Barber, from Auburn University).

Americans encounter almost as much culture shock on the court as off when they play in Turkey. The differences are subtle, but definitely can throw an American off. The rules are essentially the same, but they are interpreted quite differently. Barnies said it took him some time to adjust.

“The rip-through move where you take a step and dribble, if you don’t dribble before you take the step, they call traveling,” he said.

“I’m pretty good at it now, but when I got there, oh, it was turnovers galore,” he said. “It’s hard to explain. The little things over there are different. The things that I’ve been working on my whole life to get good at, I had to change a little bit. I’ve had two or three months to work on my game over there and change it to a European style.”

The “European style” does not include a lot of defense, he said.

“It’s the opposite of physical,” he said.

“You find creative ways to score. I picked up a ‘Eurostep.’ That’s a plus. Going into the lane (with the ball), you take two steps, but they’re two wide steps. It gets your body in and out of the lane through people, and it looks like a travel in the states, but over there, they don’t call it, ever,” he said. “Another little perk there that I’m learning.”

Home again

TB2L teams play twice a week in a 38-game season (with two-to-three hour practices on off days). Istanbulspor got off to a rough start (it is now 5-11), so the coach who signed Barnies was fired about two weeks ago.

Barnies’ first contract only guaranteed him the first three months of the season. The new coach, Ahmet Kandemir, an experienced Division I coach, quickly signed him to an extension for the rest of the season. In addition to his salary, Barnies has all of his living expenses paid for by the team.

Americans who perform well in the second division are promoted to the first division “75-90 percent of the time after their rookie year,” Barnies said.

Barnies wouldn’t mind staying in Turkey, if that’s where the best opportunities come up. He also hopes to draw interest from leagues in other countries such as France. Better yet, a strong final four months in Turkey may open the door to a spot in the NBA summer league. Barnies’ agent, Andre Buck, could have his next opportunity already lined up by the time the season ends in late April.

Barnies is glad he decided to continue playing abroad. He’s also glad that he’s had to live on his own in a foreign country because it has made him more independent.

But he’s ecstatic to be home, and he can’t wait to come back home again in four months.

“I needed this bad. I really needed to get away from it,” he said. “It was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be.”

No matter how hard it becomes, he’s determined to see it though. He doesn’t ever want to look back and wonder if he could have done more to reach his dream of playing in the NBA.

“I’ve got to do this to make money. I’ve got to do this because I love basketball,” he said. “I want to do this as long as I can to put myself in a good position, and I tell myself that every single day. But I hate being away from home.”

“I’m sure any other (American) playing basketball over there would be, ‘Yeah, I don’t mind it at all.’ Well, I do mind it. I don’t want to be over there,” he said. “I want to be here, and I’m working my ass off to get back here.”

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