Buducnost VOLI Podgorica playmaker Petar Popovic returns for another season of blogging his way through the BKT EuroCup! Popovic started his career with Lovcen Cetinje in his native Montenegro and also played for Nea Kifissia of Greece and Mega of Serbia before joining Buducnost in 2016.
Petar Popovic, Buducnost: 'This group has the best young point guards in Europe'
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Fun fact: if Buducnost wins the EuroCup, he would become the second Petar Popovic to lift the trophy; there was another Petar Popovic who won the 2007-08 EuroCup with Joventut Badalona. They are not related. There was a third basketball-playing Petar Popovic whose son Marko was the MVP of the 2011 EuroCup Finals. Popovic will continue to share his thoughts this season as he hopes to be the last blogger standing to tell us what it feels to be a EuroCup champion.
Another EuroCup season is underway! We've played three games, won two of them and lost against Turk Telekom at the buzzer. We had our chance, but I think we played bad in the first half and that cost us the game. It is still the start of the season and there are a lot of new players on our team. We are still trying to find ourselves, to fit together as good as we can, so I think our scores are okay so far. I feel we could have won in Turkiye but it is what it is. We are moving on, and the next game is against Cluj in Romania.
"It feels a bit weird to be in the EuroCup for so many years."
We will take a charter flight to go to Cluj, which is great. We got the news and it is really amazing. The club did a great job to arrange a charter to Romania. A couple of days ago, we were checking the map to see which city was close to Cluj and basically, there are no big cities close to it. It is a 6-7 hour drive from Bucharest and 4-5 hours from Debrecen, so we were worried. In the end, we get the best out of it: we will take the charter flight and return quickly after the game, too. I am very thankful to the club for it!
We were lucky last year and went to London and Paris. This season, it is the other way around and we are going to, let's say, more exotic places. I don't know about Cluj: we have some friends playing in Romania, and they said that the city is nice. So I think it will be a nice experience, even though it is a business trip; we go there to work. I have been to Bourg, which is our next game, twice. It is usually very rainy, so I haven't seen anything. I hope Cluj and Bourg will be nice, we will have at least a little walk on Tuesday night to see what's going on and how the city is.
We have a lot of new players. Allerik Freeman signed for us but I didn't even meet him. As soon as we came back from the national team, he already had a back injury. He underwent surgery and should be back soon. He is one of 11 new players on the team. I think we have a very good team, with a good balance between experienced players and young guys like Colbey Ross and McKinley Wright. They have the desire to prove themselves, to show they can play well in Europe, at a high level. So I think we made a good balance, also with Makoundou, who arrived from Monaco. I think we can have a good season. We have to be careful and go step by step, a lot of things can go wrong. We have to go game by game to get the best out of this team.
I am 27 and in my seventh EuroCup season. I was talking to Aleksa Ilic and told him that for 5 or 6 years, we have been the youngest players on the team. Years went by but we were still the youngest, but this season, half of the team is younger than us! It's nice, that's the real picture. We don't deserve to be the youngest but also not the eldest. I don't pay too much attention to that but it's nice to see that you are somewhere in the middle, with younger players and more experienced ones around you. It feels a bit weird to be in the EuroCup for so many years. Seven years is a lot.
"There are no games in which you cannot be well-prepared or focused."
At the same time, being in this EuroCup group, I am going to face some of the best young point guards in Europe. We played an elimination game against Ulm last season and I played against Juan Nunez. He had a good game. We all know that he is very talented and the things that he showed, also this summer with the Spanish national team and last season, I think that it's really nice to have the new guys like Nunez ready to play. Spain is bringing out a lot of talents for the future. Their school is well-known, the steps players have to make to go through... they don't make mistakes in making good players.
It is always a pleasure to play against talent, especially for me. I like to watch basketball, analyze and see which new guys are coming. I really like it and enjoy it. Take Hugo Benitez of Bourg, for example. He is playing well, much better than when we played against him two years ago. I was young and it is nice to see he is having a breakout season. His role is much bigger this year, but of course, I like watching these games and am looking forward to playing against him.
So far, it has been an interesting group and of course, everyone is going to defend the home-court advantage as much as possible. Last week, Gran Canaria had to fight for 38-39 minutes to win in Trento. Besiktas is playing really well, also Ulm. Above all, you have to be well-prepared at home, defend your court and go away to be brave, trying to take as many risks as possible. It is also a different format, only six teams qualify and that makes it more interesting. There are no games in which you cannot be well-prepared or focused. Every game matters! We will try to win as many games as possible. It is a long way to go, 15 more games!