REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Serbia usually are synonymous with basketball youth development, but the Balkan powerhouse has been struggling in recent years. And they are hoping an unselfish style of basketball can lead them to the title at the U20 European Championship.

The youth hoops summer started poorly for Serbia as they were bounced in the Round of 16 at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship. The Serbs bounced back to win their final three games to take ninth place, but the final ranking was a major disappointment for the team expecting to challenge for the U19 Worlds title.

Serbia have cruised through the U20 European Championship with seven straight victories and an average winning margin of 17 points.

And Vladimir Djokic's team is doing it by playing unselfishly as Serbia are the leading scoring team in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy. They have the highest team shooting percentage and are tops in three-point percentage with the most assists of any side. Rade Zagorac paces four Serbian players in double figures while two others are chipping in 7.9 points or more.

Serbia will take on Lithuania in Friday's Quarter-Finals with the country almost desperate for a victory and then a return to the podium. Since winning three straight U20 titles from 2006 to 2008 (2006 as Serbia & Montenegro), the country went five summers without collecting hardware before picking up third place last summer.

The U20s title is not the only level which has failed to deliver titles. Serbia have reached the U18 final twice since winning the title in 2009 but came up empty-handed both times. And the Serbs have returned to the final just once at the U16s since taking the top step of the podium in 2007, losing in 2013.

But Serbia’s road through the U20 knockout stage will not be easy as four of the last five U20 champions are still alive, including Quarter-Finals opponent Lithuania, who won the crown in 2012.

The winner will take on the victor between reigning champions Turkey and Latvia, who reached the 2013 final. The other two Quarters have 2010 winners France facing Czech Republic while 2011 champs Spain square off against Belgium.

Missing from the Quarters are 2013 champions and hosts Italy.

Lithuania have lost three games thus far but all three have come against quarter-finalists - Turkey, Czech Republic and Spain. The Baltic side also features Domantas Sabonis, who had a monster double-double against Ukraine in the final Second Round game with 18 points, a U20 tournament record 28 rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Sabonis' 7-of-14 shooting performance was the first time he shot over 40 percent in a game in Italy – thanks to his teammates making 8-of-22 three-pointers (36 percent) after they had connected on just 23 percent from long range going in. If Lithuania’s shooters can continue to find their mark and Sabonis continues to dominate in the middle, they could be a tough out.

Waiting for the winner of that game would be Turkey or Latvia.

Latvia finished the group stages strong with a dominant win over Italy and knocking off Belgium with Rolands Smits leading the way with 17 points in 13 minutes against Italy and 26 points versus Belgium.

Turkey missed the opportunity to take the top spot in the Second Round Group F by losing to Spain, scoring just 48 points in suffering their second loss in the tournament. The Turks already had a strong team with the likes of Metecan Birsen and Emircan Kosut but added four members of the Turkish side that finished third at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship - Ege Arar, Tolga Gecim, Berk Ugurlu and Okben Ulubay.

Assisted by low post presence Kosut, Turkey lead the tournament in blocks and are tops in opponents’ field goal percentage.

Spain meanwhile joined Serbia as the only other undefeated team in the quarters, led by a strong defense – ranked third in blocks and opponents’ field goal percentage and tops in steals. The Spaniards, who will take on Belgium, are also the top rebounding team thanks to the inside trio of Ilimane Diop, Yankuba Sima and Juan Hernangomez. The 19-year-old Hernangomez is leading Spain in scoring and rebounds while doing his best to make his own name – being the younger brother of Spanish big man Guillermo Hernangomez.

France come into their match-up with Czech Republic with the number one defense in points allowed. And they will need that defense to shine as they are missing their top scorer with Axel Bouteille out for the remainder of the tournament. They have averaged five points fewer scored per game without him.

The French are third-worst in three-point shooting percentage, meaning they desperately need Timothe Luwawu, Arthur Rozenfeld and Lucas Dussoulier to hit more than their combined 23 percent from three-point range.

The Czechs meanwhile are the second-best scoring team in the tournament also ranked second in shooting percentage and assists. They are led by Martin Peterka, Adam Pechacek and Radovan Kouril. The point guard Kouril leads the tournament in assists with 6.1 per game.

The Czechs will also be playing without any pressure, knowing they have already topped their best-ever showing at the U20 Euros. They were 16th of 16 teams in 2005 and 2010 and then 17th of 20 teams in 2013 and 2014 in the country’s four seasons in Division A.

The race to the U20 European Championship title promises to be entertaining.

David Hein

FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

FIBA takes no responsibility and gives no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of the content and opinion expressed in the above article.