Montenegro men's national basketball team

Montenegro

FIBA ranking	26 (9 December 2020)[1]
Joined FIBA	2006
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	Basketball Federation of Montenegro (KSCG)
Coach	Boško Radović
Nickname(s)	Hrabri sokoli / Храбри соколи (The Brave Falcons)
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	1
Medals	None
EuroBasket
Appearances	3
Medals	None
Games of the Small States of Europe
Appearances	3
Medals	Gold: (2015, 2019) Silver: (2017)
First Second
First international
Netherlands 63–70 Montenegro (Almere, Netherlands; 6 September 2008)
Biggest win
San Marino 37–100 Montenegro (Serravalle, San Marino; 2 June 2017)
Biggest defeat
Spain 99–60 Montenegro (Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 1 September 2017)

The Montenegro men's national basketball team (Montenegrin: Кошаркашка репрезентација Црне Горе, romanized: Košarkaška reprezentacija Crne Gore) represents Montenegro in international basketball tournaments. The supervising body is the Basketball Federation of Montenegro.

Montenegro joined FIBA in 2006, following the restoration of Montenegrin independence the same year. Since 2006 the national team has qualified for EuroBasket on three occasions (2011, 2013, 2017). Montenegro also qualified for their first appearance to the FIBA World Cup in 2019. The team also takes part in smaller tournaments such as the Games of the Small States of Europe.

History

2006–2014

Nikola Peković with Montenegro national team in 2010

In 2006, the Basketball Federation of Montenegro along with this team joined the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) on its own following the Independence of Montenegro.

The Montenegrin national team entered international competition in 2008,^[2] and appointed Duško Vujošević as the national coach. Montenegro started from FIBA Division B, where they won first place in their first competitive season. Since becoming a separate team, Montenegro has won 13 official games in a row, until losing to Israel in August 2010.

At that time, NBA players like Nikola Vučević and Nikola Peković became the most known players of Montenegrin national team.

In their first qualifiers for EuroBasket, Montenegro finished first in the group. So, the team qualified for Eurobasket 2011, where they played five games in the first phase - with one win and four losses. The Coach of Montenegro at their first-ever EuroBasket was Dejan Radonjić.

In August 2012, with the new coach Luka Pavićević, Montenegro started qualifiers for Eurobasket 2013. Again, they won first place, but without any defeat from 10 matches. Notable matches were against Serbia, first after the two countries separated. Montenegro won both games, and victory in Belgrade (73:71), in front of 18,000 spectators, is gained by Nikola Ivanović three-point shot from the center, one second before the end of the match.^[3][4]

As the first-place team in qualifiers, Montenegro participated at Eurobasket 2013 in Slovenia. They made better results than 2011, with two wins and three defeats, but that was not enough for the second phase of EuroBasket.

First unsuccessful qualifying campaign since independence, Montenegro had during the 2014. Surprisingly, group stage at the EuroBasket 2015 qualification, Montenegro finished third, so they failed to qualify for the final tournament.

2015–present

Nikola Vučević

In 2015, Montenegro named Bogdan Tanjević new head coach of the national team. Prior to taking the reigns of the national team, he was the head coach of Fenerbahçe. As the national team earlier failed to qualify for EuroBasket 2015, they participated in the Games of the Small States of Europe (European countries with less than a million citizens) in Iceland and easily won the gold medal.

In summer 2016, Montenegro started competition in EuroBasket 2017 qualifiers, with the only ambition to qualify for their third final tournament since independence. In a group with Georgia, Slovakia and Albania, Montenegro finished as a second-place team, with one defeat, and qualified for EuroBasket 2017.

For the first time in their history, in Eurobasket 2017, Montenegro finished as a third-place team in the group stage and qualified to the knockout stage. At that time, that was the biggest success of the Montenegrin national team since its independence in 2006. Two years later, Montenegro qualified for the 2019 FIBA World Cup for the first time, after a winner-take-all game in Podgorica against Latvia. Montenegro lost the game 80-74 but still went through as they had won the away game 84-75, thus holding the tiebreaker on points difference. With that result, Montenegro became the smallest state by population and territory to qualify for the FIBA World Cup since the establishing of competition.

Competitive record

Montenegro made their first appearance at the FIBA World Cup in 2019. The national team has also appeared three times at the EuroBasket (2011, 2013, 2017). Among the other competitions, as a country with less than a million inhabitants, Montenegro participated at the Games of the Small States of Europe winning the gold medal in 2015 and 2019.

Results and fixtures

 Win  Loss

2020

21 February 2020 EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers	Montenegro	81–74 0	Great Britain	Podgorica, Montenegro 0
19:00	Scoring by quarter: 24–14, 18–24, 20–10, 18–15
	Pts: Cobbs 19 Rebs: Todorović 7 Asts: Cobbs 8	Boxscore	Pts: Hesson 20 Rebs: Soko 9 Asts: Okereafor 6	Arena: Morača Sports Center Referees: Georgios Poursanidis (GRE), Vilius Mačiulaitis (LTU), Gatis Saliņš (LAT)

24 February 2020 EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers	France	85–66 0	Montenegro	La Roche-sur-Yon, France 0
18:45	Scoring by quarter: 18–12, 22–26, 20–16, 25–12
	Pts: Yabusele 15 Rebs: Fall 6 Asts: Julien 7	Boxscore	Pts: Ivanović 24 Rebs: Simonović, Todorović 7 Asts: Popović 3	Arena: Vendéspace Referees: Marius Ciulin (ROU), Tomas Jasevičius (LTU), Ventsislav Velikov (BUL)

27 November 2020 EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers	Germany	74–80 0	Montenegro	Pau, France* [note 1] 0
21:00	Scoring by quarter: 24–18, 15–20, 16–21, 19–21
	Pts: Benzing 21 Rebs: Obst 5 Asts: Obst 4	Boxscore	Pts: Cobbs 20 Rebs: Nikolić 8 Asts: Cobbs 6	Arena: Palais des Sports de Pau Referees: Manuel Mazzoni (ITA), Luis Castillo (ESP), Gatis Saliņš (LAT)

29 November 2020 EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers	Great Britain	74–59 0	Montenegro	Pau, France* [note 1] 0
18:00	Scoring by quarter: 28–19, 12–18, 15–9, 19–13
	Pts: Olaseni 28 Rebs: Olaseni 8 Asts: Nelson 6	Boxscore	Pts: Simonović 14 Rebs: Simonović 8 Asts: Cobbs, Ivanović 4	Arena: Palais des Sports de Pau Referees: Manuel Mazzoni (ITA), Luis Castillo (ESP), Mehmet Karabilecen (TUR)

2021

19 February 2021 EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers	Montenegro	vs.	France	Podgorica, Montenegro* [note 1] 0
		Boxscore

22 February 2021 EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers	Montenegro	vs.	Germany	Podgorica, Montenegro* [note 1] 0
		Boxscore

Team

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2022 Qualifiers matches played on 27 and 29 November 2020 against Germany and Great Britain.^[6]

Montenegro men's national basketball team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. PG 1 Justin Cobbs 29 – 16 March 1991 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Budućnost F 6 Suad Šehović 33 – 19 February 1987 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) Budućnost PF 7 Danilo Nikolić 27 – 8 April 1993 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Budućnost F 8 Dino Radončić 21 – 8 January 1999 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) Zaragoza C 11 Marko Simonović 21 – 15 October 1999 2.14 m (7 ft 0 in) Olimpija C 19 Zoran Nikolić 24 – 1 April 1996 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) Budućnost PG 20 Nikola Ivanović 26 – 19 February 1994 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Budućnost F 22 Emir Hadžibegović 24 – 24 August 1996 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) Studentski SG 41 Nemanja Vranješ 32 – 11 May 1988 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) Mornar F 42 Nemanja Đurišić 28 – 23 February 1992 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Estudiantes SG 44 Fedor Žugić 17 – 18 September 2003 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Budućnost PF 51 Milko Bjelica 36 – 4 June 1984 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) Mornar	Head coach Boško Radović Assistant coach(es) Blagota Sekulić Vladimir Todorović Legend (C) Team captain Club – describes last club before the competition Age – describes age on 27 November 2020

Head coaches

Since independence, all head coaches were Montenegrin-born. The first head coach of Montenegro was Duško Vujošević. With him, Montenegro won the FIBA B division championship (2009). From 2010 to 2012, Montenegro was coached by Dejan Radonjić, who led the national team to their first EuroBasket (2011). At their next Eurobasket participation (2013), Montenegro was led by Luka Pavićević. From 2015 to 2017, the head coach of Montenegro was Bogdan Tanjević, who led Montenegro to their first-ever Second phase games at the Eurobasket (2016). After that tournament, the Basketball Federation of Montenegro named Zvezdan Mitrović new head coach of the national team. During his mandate, Montenegro for the first time qualified for the World Cup (2019), as the smallest state to ever play at the global tournament.

Years	Name	Record	Competitions
2007–2010	Duško Vujošević	10–0	None
2010–2012	Dejan Radonjić	7–6	EuroBasket 2011 (21st)
2012–2014	Luka Pavićević	15–6	EuroBasket 2013 (17th)
2015–2017	Bogdan Tanjević	15–5	GSS 2015 (1st); EuroBasket 2017 (13th); GSS 2017 (2nd)
2017–2019	Zvezdan Mitrović	12–9	GSS 2019 (1st); World Cup 2019 (25th)
2019–present	Boško Radović	2–2	None

Notable former players

Records

Largest home victory

102-58, Montenegro – Iceland, 26 August 2009, Podgorica

Largest away victory

37-100, San Marino – Montenegro, 2 June 2017, Serravalle

Largest home defeat

65-80, Montenegro – Israel, 20 August 2014, Podgorica

Largest away defeat

99-60, Spain – Montenegro, 1 September 2017, Cluj-Napoca

Longest winning streak

13 matches, (6 September 2008 - 14 August 2010)

Longest losing streak

4 matches, (1 September 2011 - 5 September 2011; 1 September 2019 - 9 September 2019)

Most scored points in a match

113, Albania – Montenegro 73-113

Least scored points in a match

55, Greece – Montenegro 71-55, Netherlands – Montenegro 68-55

Most conceded points in a match

100, Latvia – Montenegro 100-68

Least conceded points in a match

37, San Marino – Montenegro 37-100

Highest home attendance

5,500, Montenegro – Serbia 72-62, 2 September 2012, Podgorica

Highest away attendance

18,000, Serbia – Montenegro 71-73, 18 August 2012, Belgrade

List of official matches

Montenengro played its first official match at September 2008. There is a List of official matches of the Montenegro national basketball team.

Opponents

Below is the list of performances of Montenegro national basketball team against every single opponent.

Opponents' country	G	W	L	PD
Albania	2	2	0	+78
Andorra	2	2	0	+61
Austria	2	2	0	+46
Belarus	2	2	0	+35
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2	0	2	-14
Brazil	1	0	1	-11
Bulgaria	2	2	0	+17
Croatia	2	0	2	-10
Cyprus	2	1	1	+33
Czech Republic	1	1	0	+13
Denmark	2	2	0	+52
Estonia	2	2	0	+22
Finland	3	2	1	+28
France	1	0	1	-19
Georgia	2	1	1	-4
Great Britain	1	1	0	+7
Greece	2	0	2	-41
Hungary	1	1	0	+24
Iceland	7	7	0	+134
Israel	6	4	2	+8
Italy	2	1	1	+8
Japan	1	1	0	+15
Latvia	6	3	3	+6
Lithuania	1	0	1	-7
Luxembourg	3	3	0	+51
Macedonia	2	2	0	+6
Malta	1	1	0	+13
Netherlands	4	2	2	+14
New Zealand	1	0	1	-10
Romania	1	1	0	+17
San Marino	1	1	0	+63
Serbia	3	3	0	+19
Slovakia	4	4	0	+114
Slovenia	2	1	1	+1
Spain	3	0	3	-64
Sweden	2	2	0	+37
Turkey	3	1	2	-10
Ukraine	2	2	0	+8
OVERALL	87	60	27	+759

Last update: 28 February 2020

Kit

Manufacturer

• Kappa (2008-2011)
• Peak (2011–present)

Sponsor

• VOLI (2008-2011)
• diva (2012-2014)
• EPCG (2014-2015)
• m:tel (2015–present)

See also

• Sport in Montenegro
• Montenegro women's national basketball team
• Montenegro men's national under-19 basketball team
• Montenegro men's national under-17 basketball team
• Montenegrin Basketball League

Notes

References

External links

• Official website (in Montenegrin)
• Montenegro at FIBA site
• Montenegro National Team - Men at Eurobasket.com