Without their veteran stars Peja Stojaković, Igor Rakočević, Marko Jarić, Vladimir Radmanović, Sasha Pavlović, Predrag Drobnjak, and Darko Miličić, Serbia fielded the youngest team at the 2009 Eurobasket and performed better than anyone expected of them.

Though overwhlemed by their Spanish opponents in the gold medal game, Serbia’s silver medal finish was a huge surprise, especially with more-experienced squads such as Lithuania, Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Slovenia in the fray.

(Do you think Serbia can be a dominant force again?)

But with veteran center and Serbian captain, Nenad Krstić, the Serbs surprised; shocking Spain in the first game of the tournament as well as defeating defending champions Russia, struggling Lithuania, and a talented-Slovenian team in the semifinals.

The only NBA player on the team, Krstic is just 26-years old, but on this team he is the oldest and most experienced player having played in the 2004 Olympics and 2005 World Championships.

Surrounding Krstic is the next generation of Serbs led by 22-year old point guard Miloš Teodosić’s 14.7 points and 4.4 assists, both team highs.

Then you have up-and-coming star Novica Veličković, a 23-year old power forward that added 11.1 points per game, good for third on the team.

After Teodosić, Krstic, and Veličković, Serbia’s next scorers are promising young prospects Uros Tripkovic’s 9.1 (23 years old), Milenko Tepić’s 8.0 points (22), and Kosta Perović’s 7.6 points (24), you can see why Serbia’s future is so bright.

The success that the young Serbs developed is going to bring more expectations from a country that already expects nothing but the best after experiencing success in the late 1980s and 1990s as part of the former-Yugoslavia.

As long as Serbia can continue to gel, they may have finally made it back to European basketball prominance.