By Albert Akota
The Nigeria’s men basketball team, D’Tigers have maintained their number one spot in Africa, with Angola placed second, Tunisia, Senegal third and fourth respectively in the latest FIBA world ranking.
D’Tigers who were previously ranked 33rd, leapfrogged 10 steps to sit in the 23rd position in the latest ranking released by FIBA on Thursday.
The latest edition of the ranking serves as the basis to determine the last eight teams to secure places in next year’s FIBA Olympic Qualification Tournaments. In addition to the 16 teams that earned berths via the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the two top-ranked countries from each region in the ranking join the 24-team Olympic Qualification Tournament field.
The FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by NIKE, will next be updated following February’s Continental Cup Qualifiers. It takes into consideration rating points of games played in top official FIBA competitions and their qualifiers over the course of an eight-year period.
The D’Tigers recently secured their automatic ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after they beat Cote d’Ivoire 83-66, pipped China 86-73 to finish tops in the Classification games Group M of the 2019 FIBA World Cup held in China earlier in September.
Never miss a moment! Get the stories shaping Nigeria, delivered straight to your phone. Follow Peoplesdaily Newspaper on WhatsApp for breaking news, exclusive reports, and the headlines everyone will be talking about, before anyone else.
