This month, the women’s basketball team learned about their opponents for the European Championship. On Thursday, our men’s team will discover their competitors as the EuroBasket draw takes place at 2 PM in Riga.

The capital of Latvia is one of four host cities for the upcoming continental championship, scheduled from August 27 to September 14, with venues in Tampere (Finland), Limassol (Cyprus), and Katowice (Poland). The finals will be held in Riga.

A total of 24 national teams are participating in EuroBasket, categorized into six pots for the draw based on their FIBA rankings from March.

Montenegro is placed in pot three alongside Italy, Poland, and the Czech Republic. This configuration ensures that Boško Radović’s squad will not compete in the same group as these teams.

As a result, the “reds” will not play their group stage games in Katowice, Poland. Each host country had the opportunity to select one opponent before the draw; Iceland will be joining the Polish team in Group D, meaning they won’t face Bojan Dubljević and his teammates.

For the other hosts, Latvia selected Estonia for Group A, Finland picked Lithuania for Group B, and Cyprus chose Greece for Group C.

Since Latvia, Lithuania, and Greece are from pot two and have established their groups, it follows that Slovenia, the remaining team from that pot, will take the last available spot in the group containing Poland and Iceland. Consequently, our team has successfully avoided the 2017 European champions.

Additionally, FIBA Europe has made the decision that Turkey will not compete in a group with Cyprus and Greece.

Each group will consist of six teams, with the top four teams progressing to the Round of 16 after the group stage.

This marks Montenegro’s fifth appearance in EuroBasket, and their third consecutive time.

In the last championship held three years ago, Boško Radović’s team was eliminated by Germany in the Round of 16 in Berlin.

First pot: Serbia, Germany, France, Spain;

Second pot: Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Greece;

Third pot: Montenegro, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic;

Fourth pot: Finland, Georgia, Turkey, Israel;

Fifth pot: Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Great Britain;

Sixth pot: Sweden, Iceland, Portugal, Cyprus.

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