Serbia & Montenegro have handed Zoran Kovacic the task of repeating the countries' success at youth level with the senior team.

Kovacic has overseen the Under-19s' passage to silver at the World Championships and the Under-18s' European gold this summer, but was given just three weeks to prepare for the EuroBasket in Turkey after being called on to replace coach Zoran Visic and first assistant Miroslav Popov.

The pair were forced to leave the bench due to commitments at youth level, throwing preparations for the tournament into disarray.

Having traditionally been in the shadow of the men's team, Serbia & Montenegro were hoping to use the tournament to show they could be a powerhouse in the women's game too, but that will be an even greater challenge now.

"This is tough time for us, as it is not a good thing to change a coach just several weeks before start of any big competition," Kovacic admitted.

"Still, I'm an optimist, as I know that we have a quality team, but we have to work hard to prove that in Turkey."

There is much work to do. In a warm-up tournament in Spain, Kovacic's new charges needed overtime to beat Lithuania 89-84, but were then thrashed 101-53 by Spain.

That result raised question marks about how much can be expected of the Blues in Turkey, but captain Biljuna Stankovic - who will be a key element in determining their fate - believes the result was an aberration.

"We were humiliated at the hands of Spain, and there's no excuse for that kind of defeat," the 21-year-old guard said. "But I know we can play better.

We are better team then result says, and we'll prove that. The juniors gave us a quite a tough task to follow them this summer, but we'll do our best not to disappoint in Turkey."

Stankovic missed the game against Spain through injury, and health problems have also hit the team's chief scoring threat Ana Jokovic, who scored 22 points against Lithuania but failed to register against Spain.

Having a fully fit squad available will be vital if they are to show what they can do.