The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine any differences between technical parameters. In case of differences between groups, the Scheffe Post-Hoc test was used to determine from which tournament such differences arose. The T-test was used for independent maybe samples regarding the variety of technical parameters obtained from the tournaments of different classifications. Results The present researcher took into consideration success in tournaments, and thus focused on the top eight teams. In the total analyses, the most important quantitative variable is the number of games. Therefore, to standardize comparison between the teams, an equal number of games have to be considered. In these tournaments, every game is important, and all of the top-eight teams reached the end of these tournaments.

In this study, the opponent��s position was ignored. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the related variables obtained from the nine tournaments examined. Table 1 General Descriptive Statistics of Top-Eight Ranked Teams in 2 Olympics, 3 World Championships and 4 European Championships In terms of the number of attacks, there was no statistical difference between the tournaments (X2=11.250, p>0.05). In other words, there was a similar number of attacks in different tournaments. In terms of attack efficiency, the 2004 Olympics differed significantly from the 2006 European Championship and 2007 World Championship (X2=23.482, p<0.05, Table 2). Table 2 Kruskal-Wallis Analysis of Attack Efficiency (%) of Teams In terms of shot efficiency, there was no statistical difference between the tournaments (X2=16.

788, p>0.05). In other words, shot efficiency variables were similar in different tournaments. In terms of fast break goals per game, there was a statistical difference between the 2004 Olympics and the 2010 European Championship; and between the 2004 and 2010 European Championships and the 2005 �C 2007 �C 2009 World Championships (X2=39.734, p<0.01, Table 3). Table 3 Kruskal-Wallis Test Results of Average Fast Break Goals Per Game In terms of fast break efficiency, there was a statistical difference between the 2004 Olympics and 2008 European Championship and between the 2008 European Championship and 2010 European Championship (X2=28.823, p<0.01, Table 4). Table 4 Kruskal-Wallis Test Results for Fast Break Efficiency of the Teams In terms of goalkeeper efficiency, there was no statistical difference between the tournaments (X2=8.

159, p>0.05). In other words, goalkeeper efficiency variables were similar in all of the tournaments examined. In terms of goalkeeper saves per game, there was no statistical difference between the tournaments (X2=4.897, p>0.05). The number of goalkeeper saves per game was similar in the analyzed tournaments. There was no statistical Entinostat difference between the tournaments in terms of the number of exposures to fouls per game (X2=6.903, p>0.05).