Ivkovic Puts Serbia Summer Into Perspective

Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic wouldn't have agreed to take the national team reins earlier this year for the second time in his career if he hadn't believed in his players.

There were skeptics because the Blues, one of the traditional powerhouses in Europe, had a very young team but Ivkovic felt his squad would be good enough to survive a very tough Group A in EuroBasket Division A and they proved him right by winning seven of their eight qualify games to finish first and book a place in next year's Final Round in Poland.

"Since the beginning, I believed in this selection of players," Ivkovic said.

"And I believed that we'd have a good start.

"For the first time in my career I've taken the same job for second time, and my only reason was that I believed in players."

Nenad Krstic, Milos Vujanic, Zoran Erceg and Novica Velickovic were all excellent but really, no player stood out over the others.

The young Serbians had such great balance and played like a team that really, no player stood out.

They swept Italy, the team deemed to be their biggest rivals in Group A, Bulgaria and Hungary while splitting two games with a very good Finland team.

Serbia, who played in front of big crowds at the Belgrade Arena when at home, secured their spot with a 92-66 home triumph over the Finns on September 17.

"After our second game with Finland, when we qualified for EuroBasket 2009 with one more game still to go," Ivkovic said, "(that's when) our preparation for the European Championship started."

Ivkovic now says it's important for everyone, including the fans, the federation and the players, to understand what this summer means.

"We've done what we've expected to do, we've qualified for European Championship," he said.

"But now, I hear comments like "great success", "fantastic" and so on. Well, we didn't achieve anything spectacular, there was nothing special. We've just - qualified. And that's all, for now. The toughest part of our journey is ahead of us, and our goal is to qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey. So, we are just at the start."

If Ivkovic wants his charges to mull over anything before next year's tournament in Poland, it's this.

"We have to be ready no matter who our rivals will be there, and to be ready when the right moment comes," he said.

"In sports, you must work constantly."

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