MIES (Switzerland) - It is now time to meet the six teams in this FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2024 Latvia with the dream of becoming Olympic champions this summer.
Here is the number 17 team in the FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike, Montenegro. The Europeans will be playing in their first OQT and hope to reach the Olympics for the first time.
How they qualified
Montenegro went into the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 making their second straight appearance in FIBA's flagship event after having qualified for the FIBA EuroBasket on four of the last five occasions.
Montenegro opened their Group D campaign in the Philippines in style with a 20-point victory over Mexico and made it two for two with an 89-74 win over Egypt. Montenegro were not up to the challenge against fellow Europeans Lithuania with a 91-71 loss to take second place in the group.
Moving onto Group J in the Second Round, Montenegro were beaten 85-73 by USA. Bosko Radovic's team closed the group stage with a 73-69 win over Greece, but it was not enough to reach the Quarter-Finals. Montenegro finished third in the group with a 3-2 mark.
Montenegro eventually finished in 11th place at the World Cup. That qualified them for the OQTs as one of the best 16 remaining teams that did not advance directly to the Summer Olympics.
Record at the Olympics
Appearances: 0 Medals: 0
Recent OQT history*
* Since 2008
Montenegro has only been playing under their flag in FIBA since 2006 and has become a regular at FIBA EuroBaskets and twice reached the FIBA World Cup. But the Balkan country will be competing in their first OQT.
Last Olympics appearance
Montenegro will be going into the OQT with the dream of making the Olympics for the first time - though the country participated in the Games as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.
The OQT Group Phase
Montenegro head to Riga this summer and will be competing in a wide-open OQT Latvia. The first game in Group B will come against Brazil and Montenegro's second contest will be versus Cameroon, who defeated Senegal in the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Lagos, Nigeria.
The top two from the groups advance with Group A consisting of hosts Latvia, Georgia, and the Philippines. The two Semi-Finals winners will face off in the Final, the winner of which will be booking their ticket to Paris.
Brazil OQT games
vs Brazil (July 2) vs Cameroon (July 3)
Players to watch
Montenegro will be led by their big man Nikola Vucevic, who paced the team in scoring and rebounding at the World Cup. The long-time NBA veteran is 33 years old and knows this might be his last chance to reach the Olympics.
Montenegro have one of the best big man combos when Vucevic plays with Bojan Dubljevic - another veteran center who is aged 32.
The Balkan side's main playmaker is naturalized Kendrick Perry, who has become a force in Europe. Coach Radovic also has Nemanja Radovic, Vladimir Mihailovic, Nikola Ivanovic, Marko Simonovic and Aleksa Ilic.
The team also could feature some of the country's future leaders including Dino Radoncic, Fedor Zugic, Igor Drobnjak, Andrija Slavkovic and Luka Bogavac.
Qualified Team Focus series
We've checked out all teams ready to step out as part of our Qualified Team Focus series. You can take a look at Cameroon, Brazil, Montenegro, Latvia, the Philippines, and Georgia.
FIBA