MNE - It's all about the Nikolas

PODGORICA (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Montenegro's team at the EuroBasket Women in France is making some headlines as it tries to qualify for the FIBA World Championship for Women.

The men, who will in September attempt to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup, jumped into the spotlight this week, too, when the federation announced its preliminary roster for the EuroBasket in Slovenia.

NBA big men Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic and Nikola Pekovic of the Minnesota Timberwolves are both in the squad.

Pekovic is a free agent, though, and doesn't know when he will be able to link up with the national team.

"He has the best of intentions to represent Montenegro," said Montenegro coach Luka Pavicevic.

One Nikola not in the preliminary squad, however, is Real Madrid's Nikola Mirotic.

The Podgorica-born forward was the MVP of the 2011 U20 European Championship in Bilbao as a member of gold-medal winning Spain.

As Spain could choose to have Congolese-born Serge Ibaka of the Oklahoma City Thunder as their naturalized player, there has been speculation that Mirotic might try to play for Montenegro, the country of his birth.

He spoke about the national team question in a May interview with FIBA.com.

"I have very fond memories (of the U20 team)," he said.

"I am very happy.

"In Spain, I have felt like at home. We will see what the future holds."

Pavicevic said: "I'm sure he values his roots, country and people, and he has to decide," Pavicevic said.

"He should ask FIBA to register as a Montenegrin, and until then we cannot call him."

Montenegro, winners of all 10 of their Qualification Round games last year, will play in Group B at the EuroBasket in September with Serbia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MKD).

Montenegro's preliminary squad for EuroBasket 2013: Nikola Pekovic, Nikola Vucevic, Blagota Sekulic, Bojan Dubljevic, Radosav Spasojevic, Taylor Rochestie, Nikola Ivanovic, Nikola Pavlicevic, Aleksa Popovic, Sead Sehovic, Marko Popovic, Vladimir Dasic, Milko Bjelica, Nemanja Radovic, Marko Todorovic, Milos Komatina, Filip Barovic, Suad Sehovic, Bojan Bakic, Boris Bakic and Vladimir Mihailovic.

FIBA