Petar Popovic, Buducnost: 'We can show some good basketball'

**Buducnost VOLI Podgorica is back to the 7DAYS EuroCup and so is Petar Popovic, who will keep his EuroCupBasketball.com blog active for another season. Popovic watches a lot of games and follows the EuroCup as one of its biggest fans, so it is always interesting to read what he has to say. Born in Cetinje, Montenegro, he started his career with hometown club Lovcen and also played for Nea Kifissia of Greece and Mega Leks of Serbia before joining Buducnost in 2016. He has been in the EuroCup longer than most, as this is Popovic's sixth season in the competition. Follow him on these pages all season long. **

Here we are again, in another EuroCup season. We've played three games and won two of them. We were close to losing against Promitheas in this last round. We had the game under control for like three quarters. We were up by 19 points or so and then suddenly they started playing some zone press, some zone defense, and we got a little bit lost. We made some quick decisions that they punished on the other side. They scored some threes, some transition points and in a moment when I looked at the board, we were up by just 5 points. I was a little bit confused about how quickly we lost the advantage. But in the end, luckily, we managed to win the game. And it's important for us, especially at home, because first of all, we lost against Hamburg, which we didn't expect. There were plenty of reasons. We didn't play at our level and two days before that, we had an ABA League game against Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade. We had to go there and were not at our maximum in Round 1 against Hamburg, so this is a very important win for us against Promitheas.

"It will be my first time in London, so I am very excited."

Aleksandar Lazic did not score but had the game-saving block at the end of regulation. He made a great play. He was on the bench most of the game but Coach put him on the court for the last possession of regulation to play defense so that we were able to switch and he made a great play! I left the guy under the rim and he made a great, great play running from the sideline and catching him to block the shot. It was a critical play and I am glad he forced overtime and won the game.

Our next EuroCup game is in London! It will be my first time in London, so I am very excited about it. Being from Montenegro, we don't have many chances to visit London because we need a visa. And that visa is usually short-term. You need a lot of time to get a visa and when you get it, it's like a three-month or six-month duration. So this is a unique opportunity to go to London and visit the city, so we are very excited. We will play at Wembley Arena, a very popular place. I watched them against Gran Canaria. I saw that they had ups and downs, but they showed some good things on the court. They play zone from time to time. They were switching so it's going to be a challenge for us to play on the road. We go on a 10-day trip: first we play against FMP in Belgrade, then we go to London and then Igokea in Serbia. All three games are very specific and a little bit tricky for us. We have to stay sharp on the road, changing cities every two days, and get as many wins as possible before the break. I would like to see something cool in London, but I think that we will not have time because we will be in a hotel next to the arena, more than one hour away from the center. In most cities, we just get a stamp in our passport and that's it. So let London be one more!

Looking around the EuroCup, there are a lot of good young players out there. I am 26 and feel like an experienced guy compared to all these guys. A lot of times I catch myself thinking: am I young? Am I old? Am I experienced? I guess I am somewhere in the middle. This is my sixth EuroCup season, plus one season in the EuroLeague, so I think that I am pretty experienced for this competition. Seeing a lot of new young guys is making me happy. I wanted to mention Fedor Zugic, of course. He is a great talent and a very skilled player. He's very young and I think that this season he has shown that he leveled up his game. I watched their game against Brescia and that was an interesting game, just like Prometey against Bursaspor. I saw Issuf Sanon and he is playing well. Other than these two games, there are young, interesting players on most teams. I like Olek Balcerowski of Gran Canaria, he looks really strong this season, especially after the EuroBasket, where he gained some confidence. It is obvious on the court. So like I said, there are a lot of new young guys, and we will enjoy seeing how they improve.

"Some games that on paper are easy to win, you can lose, but also some games where you come as an underdog, you can win. I think that's the beauty of the EuroCup."

This EuroCup season is going to be like really, really interesting. After three games, only Bourg is undefeated. There are seven teams with 2-1 records in our group. That's the thing that we all like to see, you cannot predict anything. Some games that on paper are easy to win, you can lose, but also some games where you come as an underdog, you can win. I think that's the beauty of the EuroCup and I think we will see a lot of that stuff in the end. We know last season in the playoffs there were a lot of upsets. So it's interesting, we are all looking forward to playing and to see what's going to happen.

We changed a lot from one season to another; I think we have eight new players and a new coaching staff. In the preseason, we were in a situation no other team had: we had only four players. All the other guys played for their national teams, so we had a very specific preseason. But I think that in the last couple of games we kept some rhythm. We have a lot of room to improve but I think that we can show some good basketball this season. We showed that we are improving, which is important, but it's a long road ahead of us. And I think that we will make some steps ahead compared to last season.

The first goal, of course, is making it to the playoffs. We have to go one game at a time. We have to try to collect as many wins as possible. Our goal is to be in the playoffs and we will do our best to achieve our goals. We know from these past years that we cannot predict much, especially with viruses and injuries. We have a 12-13 man roster, so if one or two guys go out, we are not the same team, but as we said before, that's the beauty of basketball, you cannot predict things. But of course, our goal is to go in the playoffs and to be placed as high as possible at the end of the EuroCup regular season.