The Montenegrin national basketball team begins preparations for its fifth European Championship in history, and third in a row, tomorrow. After another successful qualifying cycle, Boško Radović's team will compete at the continental tournament, which will be held in Latvia, Finland, Poland and Cyprus from August 27 to September 14.
Montenegro will play its group stage matches in Tampere, Finland, and in addition to the host Finland, our national team's rivals will be Germany, Lithuania, Sweden and Great Britain.
And as has been known for some time, Montenegro will not be complete at the championship. Bojan Dubljević, Nikola Ivanović, Petar Popović, Dino Radončić, Nemanja Radović, Luka Bogavac, David Mirković, Andrija Grbović and Fedor Žugić will be missing.
"It remains a pity that not all the players were able to appear, several of them who have made a great contribution to the national team, the game, and the successes we have achieved in the last ten years. Which will not round off the national team career with another championship. Let me repeat once again - everyone is absent for objective reasons and everyone was interviewed. In the end, it turned out that the last time we were in full force was in Manila at the World Cup, where we played great games," said coach Boško Radović at today's press conference.
Montenegro will play Germany at the start of the championship, followed by matches with Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Great Britain.
"I wouldn't talk about the schedule, because even if you beat Germany and Lithuania at the start, that doesn't guarantee passage. We have enough experience. In competitions like this, the most important thing is to win games against direct rivals for two places to advance. The Germans and Lithuanians are absolute favorites in the group, so against the other three rivals we should look for our chance to be among the two teams that will advance to the second phase. Passing the group would be one of the greater successes of this national team. We have to be patient, because we have a difficult group ahead of us. We played with the Swedes in the qualifiers, we saw that they are a good team, and now they will be reinforced with two NBA players, the Finns are the hosts, Great Britain is traditionally unpleasant for us, so we have to prepare in the best possible way," explained Radović.
"GENERATIONAL CHANGE IS IMMUNITY"
There is a generational change in the national team.
"The generational change was inevitable. What will be a problem in the future is the departure of Luka Bogavac, David Mirković and Andrija Grbović to college. It is neither the first nor the last time that we have faced personnel problems. These are the 15 best guys at the moment. We had teams where guys from the Montenegrin league made a great contribution in moments when there were layoffs, when there were players missing, when there were injuries. Respect to all the guys who have been in the qualifiers and in major competitions these years. Everyone made a contribution," said Radović.
THE OLMENU
The first matches for Montenegro will be played by basketball player Kyle Olman, who moved from Besiktas to Turk Telekom.
"We'll see how he fits in. The information I have about him says he's a great guy, so we'll see how he does during the preparations. We had a lot of offers from Euroleague players. But the healthiest thing is to bring in a player who is in the top Eurocup teams, who can be available throughout the year. He covers the one and two positions, he has great physical predispositions. We followed the games in Besiktas, I think he's a player who could bring us good things. But the club is one thing, the national team is something else, he has to fit in quickly. We'll see how it all looks," explained the coach.
Montenegro will train in Bar and play five friendly matches - against France (August 4), Bosnia and Herzegovina (August 10), Greece (August 14), Israel (August 17) and Turkey (August 22). Our team will play against Israel in Bar, and will be away in the remaining matches.
"We have scheduled matches against five good national teams. We have made a work program. We are starting at our own pace, like all these years. Let's see where we are and where we can look for a chance at the European Championship. It is certain that the older and more experienced guys will have to take more initiative this time, so that we can look like we have in recent years at the European Championship, which was more than decent."
"WE ALL HAVE TO REDUCE THE CRITERIA"
After EuroBasket, the World Cup qualifiers begin. The question is what kind of lineup Montenegro will play in those matches, and what is certain is that there will be no players from the NCAA League.
"I am an incorrigible optimist. It will be difficult, in the qualifications in November it will be a problem to make a list of players who can respond to the quality of the competition. It will be a big problem to make a respectable team of players who can play at that level. I think the absolute imperative should be to pass the first group in the qualifications for the World Cup. By passing the group you have a continuity of matches for almost two years. And then to prepare for the European Championship. We are used to the public that the most normal thing is for Montenegro to be at the World or European Championship. I think that is a pretty nice success, but I say again, we all have to lower the criteria and expectations from this national team in the future, because those guys who will be there tomorrow and the coach will need a lot of support and logistics to get to a big competition," Radović is honest.
The Federation has a lot of work ahead of it, all the younger men's teams are in the B division, players are going to college... The coach spoke about the future.
"I think I've been warning all these years that this will happen. Nothing unexpected for me. It's up to the Federation and the clubs, the clubs must be understanding, an agreement must be made to organize camps, gatherings of younger teams, because everything starts with them. We've come to an unenviable position. But I hope that the new president and the people who will come here will seriously deal with the younger teams, which is the foundation of all this." Unfortunately, all the younger teams are in the B division, which is not good and there is no chance of us even getting into the A division. There were times when our team lost its status in the A division, and then returned the following year without defeat, but now that is no longer the case. So, we have a systemic problem that needs to be solved and I hope it will be solved quickly," said Boško Radović.
There are 15 players on the list: Kyle Olmen (Turk Telekom), Igor Drobnjak (Spartak Subotica), Ognjen Čarapić (Pécs), Vladimir Mihailović (Zadar), Balša Živanović (SC Derbi), Zoran Vučeljić (SC Derbi), Jovan Kljajić (Granada), Đorđije Jovanović (Buducnost Voli), Andrija Slavković (Buducnost Voli), Emir Hadžibegović (SC Derbi), Bojan Tomašević (FMP), Filip Andušić (SC Derbi), Marko Simonović (Tuk Telekom), Zoran Nikolić (SC Derbi) and Nikola Vučević (Chicago).
Bonus video:
