Continental winners strengthen spots in FIBA World Ranking, presented by Nike

MIES (Switzerland) - Argentina, Australia and Spain all boosted their positions in the most recent FIBA World Ranking, presented by Nike by winning their respective continental championships.

Argentina defeated Brazil 75-73 on September 12 to clinch the FIBA AmeriCup 2022 title which helped them jump from three spots to number four in the ranking.

Australia's 75-73 win over Lebanon in the FIBA Asia Cup 2022 on July 24 led to a solidified third place with a move from 691.9 to 741.1 points.

Second place still belongs to Spain, who surprised many by claiming gold at the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 to push to 758.9 points - up from 724 points.

Tunisia still benefit from the positive impact of their win last summer at the FIBA AfroBasket 2021, climbing seven spots in the ranking.

Spain as close as ever to USA

The top ranked team in the world remains United States, but their ranking points is now less than 2 above Spain. The number one spot will be at stake during the last two windows of the FIBA World Cup 2023 Qualifiers. USA falling out of the top spot has never happened before since the inception of the FIBA World Ranking.

Spain are reigning world champions, winners of EuroBasket and reached the Quarter-Finals of the 2021 Olympics. United States won Olympic gold, but clinched only third place at the AmeriCup, and did not advance past the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Quarter-Finals.

In addition to the FIBA AmeriCup, FIBA Asia Cup and FIBA EuroBasket, the latest edition of the FIBA World Ranking, Presented by Nike also includes the results from this summer's two Windows of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers.

Argentina, Australia had strong summer windows

Argentina helped their cause by beating Venezuela, Panama and Bahamas in the Americas Qualifiers though they did fall to Canada. The biggest jumper in the ranking from the Americas was Colombia, who climbed 13 spots to 52 thanks to wins over Chile, Brazil and Mexico before a defeat against United States.

Australia for their part went 5-0 in the Asian Qualifiers, beating China twice along with single wins over Japan, Iran and Bahrain.  Lebanon was the biggest mover from Asia, going up 10 positions to 43 thanks to reaching the Asia Cup Final as well as Asian Qualifiers wins over Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Philippines and India.

Finland rise thanks to Qualifiers, EuroBasket

Europe saw a number of teams make solid gains in the ranking - combined with EuroBasket performance and strong showings in the windows.

Finland collected wins over Sweden, Croatia, Israel and Estonia to become the first European team to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 and then reached the Quarter-Finals of EuroBasket, helping them rise from 34 to 25th. Montenegro climbed from 24 to 18th after knocking off France, Portugal and Bosnia and Herzegovina in European Qualifiers and advancing to the Round of 16 of EuroBasket.

Belgium used wins over Slovakia, Serbia and Great Britain in addition to a Round of 16 showing at EuroBasket to move up seven spots to 29th.

EuroBasket cinderella Semi-Finalist Poland may not move up in the ranking this time around, but they now possess almost 30 more points than the previous one and are closing in on Czech Republic for the 12th place.

South Sudan Africa's biggest mover

The FIBA AfroBasket 2021 was already included in the last rankings so the latest edition adds only results from the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 African Qualifiers.

The 2021 continental champions Tunisia rose seven spots to 20th as they went 3-3 in the windows with wins over Cameroon, Rwanda and Congo DR. The continent's youngest high flyer South Sudan also made the biggest leap in the ranking, using wins over Rwanda, Tunisia, Cameroon, Congo DR and Egypt to offset a defeat against Senegal and rise 11 spots to 64th.

For more information about the method used in the calculation of the FIBA World Ranking Men, please refer to the "How It Works" section.

Due to COVID-19, several tournaments were postponed. These include the Olympics (qualifying and final tournaments), played in 2021 rather than 2020, and the final tournaments of AmeriCup, Asia Cup, EuroBasket, and FIBA Eureopean Championship for Small Countries, all played in 2022 rather than 2021. To ensure that these postponements have no lasting impact on the ranking and to keep the standard format of a four-year cycle, the dates of the affected matches are altered to the year that they were originally due to take place, before the time decay factor is computed.

Click here to view the full FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike.

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About FIBA

FIBA (fiba.basketball) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 212 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognized as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).