This Friday a new edition of the Nike International Junior Tournament of Belgrade will be held in the Serbian capital. Eight teams will fight to get a spot for the final round of Barcelona. Won't be easy for any of them. French prospects of INSEP, the current champions, will be in Belgrade, but also junior top-level teams like Union Olimpija Ljubljana or FMP Zeleznik. Serbians are first in their home country junior league with the same victories as Hemofarm, but with the MVP of the league in their roster. Nenad Miljenovic ('93) is their leader with 30.1 index behind 20.1 points, 7.6 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 2.4 steals in 31 minutes. But he is not alone: Stefan Popovski-Turanjanin ('93) -19.0 points and 7.6 rebounds-, Nikola Pavlovic ('93) -13.1 points and 5.7 boards-, Nemanja Bezbradica ('93) -12.0 points and 5.9 rebounds. Miljenovic interview:
-We are on the road to Barcelona, and Belgrade's NIJT is the chance for FMP to earn a spot. How do you arrive to the event as a team? Who can be the worst rivals?
We won our last game by 40 points against good rival in junior league, so obviously we go to the tournament with a lot of confidence. For us, every next rival is the worse one. We can't think about other group, the most important game is the next one. Because this is not league, it's a tournament. You play two games a day and one bad morning or afternoon can be the end of your dreams for Barcelona. So we have to go game by game and think about the next rival. The favourite is INSEP, as the last year Euroleague junior champion.
-Individually last week-end you made a 48 ranking, showing why you are the current MVP of junior league. How do you feel?
I feel good but my goal and team goal in this competition is to be first in regular part, so we can host the Final tournament. That is going to improve our chances of winning it. Individual awards come as a result of what you do as a team and what you do in your team. MVP is not my goal, I am happy that we are first on standings right now. I just try to do everything for my team to win, if that is enough to be MVP then it's great.
-1993 Serbian generation is making steps forward, specially players like you, Cvetkovic or Mitrovic. Polish will fight at home this summer in the U-18 EC. Tough goal for you to beat Karnowski, Ponitka & Co.
Poland is obviously the main favourite. They played terrific basketball last summer and they beat us by 30 points in the quarter-finals, so I think we as a team need to answer this summer on that. The most important thing is that we are all healthy, to have a good coach and we will be ready to fight in Poland against everyone