Basketball: Nigeria’s D’Tigers Ranked Fourth In Latest FIBA Power Rankings
Nigeria has been ranked the fourth-best team of the 12 countries that will be featuring at the 2020 Olympics behind Australia, Spain and the USA, according to the latest FIBA Power Rankings.
The power rankings, which is different from the FIBA World Ranking presented by Nike, is based on the recent performances of the teams. It is determined by dividing the sum of all the win points, tie points, schedule points and bonus points by the number of games played.
D’Tigers placed fourth after their astonishing victories over world No.1 USA and fourth ranked Argentina during their exhibition games in Las Vegas recently.
The West Africans were beaten 108-69 by Australia, their opponents in their opening game at the Olympic Games on July 25 at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.
Australia are No.1 in the pre-Olympic power rankings after earning three warm-up games victories over the USA, Argentina and Nigeria in Las Vegas.
Spain, second in the world, are also second-placed on the power rankings.
La Roja went 4-0 in their first four preparation games, scoring 89.2 points per game while allowing 67.5 at the other end. They beat France and Iran twice in July and are billed to face the USA on July 19.
After losing to Nigeria and Australia in the exhibition games in Las Vegas, USA placed third in the power rankings. The Americans, who are aiming to win their fourth Olympic gold in a row, beat Argentina 108-80 in their final exhibition match.
Inspired by Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic, Slovenia won all games at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Lithuania beating Angola, Poland, Venezuela and Lithuania to book their Olympics ticket.
Others are France, Italy, Argentina, Germany, Czech Republic, Japan and Iran.
