By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
The United States leads the FIBA World Ranking, presented by Nike, but subsequent movements include Spain climbing to sixth place.
The latest rankings were released on Monday.
Per the press release: “Excellence and stability define the top of the FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike, as each of the five highest-ranked teams posted a perfect record in Window 3 of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Qualifiers.
Behind USA and Germany, the race for third place is now tighter than ever, with Serbia, France and Canada separated by fewer than 1.5 ranking points.
The next update of the FIBA World Ranking Men, following Window 4 in August, could see a change on the podium.
Spain edge ahead of Australia for sixth place thanks to the higher Region Factor applied to games played in the European Qualifiers than to those in the Asian Qualifiers, reflecting the differences in typical opponent strength across FIBA regions.
In the Americas, Brazil are the highest climbers, moving up to ninth place ahead of Lithuania. They have improved to 6-0 in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Americas Qualifiers after posting two convincing road wins in Window 3.
The last time Brazil were ranked higher than 10th was after the December 31, 2016 update, when they were seventh in the world.
In Europe, Latvia are the only other team moving up in the Top 30. They bounced back from a challenging start to the Qualifiers with a couple of victories and are now back in 12th place.
South Sudan also climb one spot to 24th after securing qualification for the Second Round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 African Qualifiers with two wins in the latest window.
Every team in the African Qualifiers played three games in July as initially planned. Following the rescheduling of postponed games, teams in Groups C and D of the Asian Qualifiers, as well as Venezuela and Colombia in the Americas Qualifiers, also participated in three games.
These additional games provided extra opportunities to earn ranking points. Iran and Venezuela benefited from this and climbed two spots.
Outside the Top 100, there have been some double-digit jumps from teams performing well in the FIBA AmeriCup 2029 Caribbean Pre-Qualifiers.
Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines moved up 10, 15 and 11 spots, respectively.
The next update of the FIBA World Ranking Men, following the conclusion of Window 4 of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Qualifiers, will introduce a second tier for the Margin of Victory Factor.
Teams will not only benefit from a bonus for winning by 15 points or more, as it’s currently the case: if a team wins by 30 points or more, its Game Rating Points will be multiplied by a higher factor, better reflecting its performance on the court.
For more information about the method used in the calculation of the FIBA World Ranking Men, Region Factor and Margin of Victory Factor, please refer to the ‘How it Works‘ section.
Click here to view the full FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike.”
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