Montenegro happy to be back at the party

VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - The mood is upbeat in Podgorica these days, as it should be after Montenegro's qualification for FIBA EuroBasket 2017.

It's no fun being on the outside of a big tournament looking in, as the Montenegrins were last year when the EuroBasket was staged in Croatia, France, Germany and Latvia.

Forget last year. They'll be at the party next year.

Some of the air was let out of the Montenegro balloon this summer when Georgia denied them a perfect 6-0 record in qualifying on the final night with a 90-84 win in Bar, but the vibe is good. The name of the game was to make it back to the tournament for the third time in the last four editions and the Balkan team did so with a game to spare.

Bogdan Tanjevic led Montenegro into FIBA EuroBasket 2017

"The most important thing is that we qualified and met the main goal," said coach Bogdan Tanjevic.

So what are we to make of this Montenegro side? For starters, let's have some perspective and remember how far this program has come in a short span of time.

It's only been 10 years since Montenegro became the 213th member federation of FIBA. They did not get a free pass to compete with the big boys, either.

Montenegro had to spend their first couple of summers winning promotion from the old Division B in Europe to get to Division A, and once that happened, they spent a couple of more years qualifying for their first EuroBasket appearance in 2011.

They then discovered that getting to the EuroBasket is one thing and actually winning games at the tournament is something else entirely. Montenegro did prevail in their first EuroBasket 2011 game in Alytus, Lithuania, over the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MKD) but a horror show followed.

They lost four in a row and crashed out of the competition. Montenegro did make it through the next qualifying campaign for EuroBasket 2013 and played in Slovenia, only to again come up short of advancing from the Group Phase.

After that, the national team went in reverse. It failed to qualify for EuroBasket 2015 with the killer blow a home defeat to the Netherlands in a qualifying game. The Dutch then beat Montenegro at home and booked a spot at EuroBasket 2015 for themselves.

The Dutch victories were a lesson to all good teams in Europe. You better bring it every night in qualifying or you're asking for trouble.

Montenegro had the right focus this year and took care of business. They are back in the EuroBasket because they have talent, they're organized and, something that's hugely important, they're together.

"The atmosphere in the team was great from the first day of preparation, and I want to congratulate my teammates and the coaching staff for the result we achieved," said captain Bojan Dubljevic.

Montenegro also have a great coach. Tanjevic, who led Italy to EuroBasket 1999 glory and also got Turkey into the Quarter-Finals of the 2006 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the Final of the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup, is terrific.

The team's biggest win under Tanjevic this summer came on the 7th of September in Tbilisi, a 76-74 triumph over Georgia. So they've made it.

Montenegro's most important victory was in Georgia

Now what? For starters, Montenegro must pay attention to team chemistry.

Tanjevic told reporters after the qualifying campaign that he did not expect Tyrese Rice to play again for the national team. Rice, a naturalized Montenegrin guard who is now on the books of Barcelona, averaged almost 17 points per game for the national team at EuroBasket 2013.

The coach does say that veterans Milko Bjelica and Nikola Pekovic could return for next year, although we'll just have to wait and see. It doesn't look good for Pekovic considering his history of injuries and especially recent developments.

Montenegro nevertheless have cause to be optimistic. Their giant center, Orlando Magic pivot Nikola Vucevic, averaged 15.7ppg and 6.5rpg this summer.

They played as a team. Every summer is different though. Tanjevic will know that next year is going to be hard. A good sign is that the players that played this year had a good time and can't wait to meet up again.

"We now turn to club commitments," Dubljevic said, "but the whole team can not wait to start the preparations for the EuroBasket next summer."

Jeff Taylor
FIBA

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