Basketball players gather on Monday, preparations for Bulgaria begin

The basketball team of Montenegro will be together for the first time after the qualification for the Olympic Games, which is expected to compete with Bulgaria in the qualification for Eurobasket 2025.

With tomorrow's (18) training in the "Bemax Arena", our national team is embarking on another mission, with the desire to qualify for the continental championship and continue the continuity of participation in major competitions.

The first match against the Bulgarians is scheduled for Friday (19) in "Bemax Arena", while on Monday, November 25, the match is in Botevgrad. The current world champion, Germany, and Sweden are also in the group, and after two rounds, all four teams are tied at 1-1. Placement to the European Championship, which will be held next year in Poland, Finland, Latvia and Cyprus, will be ensured by three selections from the group.

In this "window", coach Boško Radović can also count on basketball players who missed the qualification tournament for the Olympic Games, which was held in Riga this summer. Thus, the extended list includes Bojan Dubljević, Nikola Ivanović, Marko Todorović, Nemanja Radović, Zoran Nikolić, Vladimir Mihailović and Fedor Žugić. Nikola Vučević is not on the list, as expected due to his obligations in the NBA league.

For the first time in the qualifiers for the upcoming Eurobasket, Radović will be able to count on Dubljević and Ivanović, who missed the February matches with Germany and Sweden. At that time, there was also Todorović, who arrived in Murcia in December 2023, where he played brilliantly in the second part of the previous season.

When it comes to European championships, Montenegro did not only participate in 2015 in Germany, Latvia, France and Croatia.

The European Championship is on the program from August 27 to September 14 of the following year.

The list published at the end of October includes:

Nikola Ivanovic (Breša)

Kendrick Perry (Unicaha)

Igor Drobnjak (SC Derbi)

Balša Zivanović (Podgorica)

Fedor Žugić (U. Creighton)

Petar Popović (FMP)

Zoran Vučeljić (SC Derbi)

Luka Bogavac (SC Derby)

Vladimir Mihailović (Zadar)

Đorđije Jovanović (Budućnost Voli)

Dino Radončić (Betis)

Andrija Slavković (Budućnost Voli)

Aleksa Ilić (Budućnost Voli)

David Mirkovic (SC Derbi)

Emir Hadžibegović (SC Derby)

Vasilije Baćović (Pečuj)

Nemanja Radović (Murcia)

Filip Andušić (SC Derbi)

Bojan Dubljević (Zaragosa)

Marko Todorović (Murcia)

Marko Simonović (Bahceşehir)

Zoran Nikolić (SC Derbi)

Andrija Grbović (SC Derbi).