PODGORICA (FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers) - Nemanja Radovic first suited up for the senior Montenegro national team in summer 2014, during their FIBA EuroBasket 2015 2nd Qualification Round campaign, with things getting off to a highly promising start.

The power forward was averaging 23 minutes per game and, despite playing without the likes of Nikola Pekovic, Nikola Vucevic and Blagota Sekulic, Montenegro won their first two games in Group B and look poised to punch their ticket to a third consecutive EuroBasket tournament.

But the Balkan nation's team lost three of their last four games and dropped to third place, with Israel and Netherlands finally earning a berth in the showcase event.

Looking back, Radovic knows precisely what spoiled his debut competition with the senior national team.

"If I could change one thing about that summer, I would try to keep [Milko] Bjelica healthy," the UCAM Murcia forward told fiba.com.

"We didn't have some important players and then our best player on the roster got injured in the second game, against Bulgaria.

"Bjelica was too important to us and losing him so early meant we had to change things around.

"Everything went wrong after that."

On a personal level however, that summer only bolstered Radovic's desire to suit up for the national team.

"Apart from the result, it was a big experience for me because it was my first time playing in qualifications," the 25-year-old forward said.

"At the end it left me with a bad feeling because we did not advance.

"So I really hope to change that result this time around, for the bad feeling to go away.

"Coach Luka [Pavicevic] did a very good job but we were unlucky.

"I think with coach Tanjevic we're going to do very well, he is a great coach."

Radovic and Montenegro, under new head coach Bogdan Tanjevic, hope to find redemption in next summer's qualifiers for FIBA EuroBasket 2017.

To achieve it, they will have to overcome the obstacles of Albania, Georgia and the Slovak Republic in Group F.

"My first reaction after the draw was that it is going to be tough, but we can go through," said Radovic.

"There are some quality teams in the group so we are going to have a difficult job and we need to prepare very well to make it.

"I think the key will be to do our best in the games against Georgia.

"They have Zaza Pachulia in the NBA, other good players like Tornike (Toko) Shengelia who plays here (in Spain).

"I have a lot of respect for Shengelia, he is a '4' like me, so I hope I do a good job against him."

Radovic joined Murcia two years ago and this season he is averaging 7.2 points and 4.9 rebounds to help the team coached by Fotis Katsikaris, who is also the Greek national team head coach, remain firmly in the play-off race in the Spanish Liga Endesa.

He hopes to replicate that form in the summer for Montenegro but, most of all, he hopes that the nation's biggest guns will join the bid to bring the nation back to EuroBasket.

While Pekovic is highly doubtful because he is struggling once again with injury problems, Vucevic is having another fantastic season in the NBA and could make all the difference, according to Radovic.

"Georgia and ourselves have the best players in this group but if our star players come to play I think Montenegro will be a great team," the Murcia player said.

"Vucevic is a great player.

"He is a huge weapon on offence, we need to give him the ball in the low post and play the game through him.

"He can take care of the rest," Radovic added with a laughter.

"We are a very, very small country of only 650,000 people so based only on population nobody can believe that we could play at the EuroBasket.

"But we have a lot of quality, especially our big guys like our two NBA stars.

"So I think we belong there and I am optimistic we will qualify."