In the latest rankings released by FIBA, basketball governing body, after the FIBA 2022 Youths Events, Nigerian girls fail to make the top 100 teams in the world, The PUNCH reports.
The new system for the FIBA World Ranking Youth was launched earlier this year and it calculates the rating points for each game for each team as well as the ranking according to the weighted average rating points of each team, overall games contributing to the ranking.
According to the release on FIBA website, the countries not listed have 0 points and are therefore all positioned, with the same rank, after the last country mentioned.
While the Nigerian girls are missing from the top 100 rankings, Mail, winners of the last edition of the FIBA U-16 Women’s African Championship occupy the 19th position while Egypt sit 20th in the world.
Angola are the next African to make the cut in the 36th position while Uganda, Algeria and Mozambique are ranked in 40th, 41st and 42nd positions respectively.
Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Rwanda, Guinea, Gabon, New Guinea, are the other African countries to make the top 100.
Globally, the USA strengthened their grip on top spot in latest FIBA World Ranking Girls after winning all seven of their games at the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 in Hungary in July and accrue a total of 847.8 points in the FIBA World Ranking Girls. USA Basketball also won the gold medal at the FIBA U18 Women’s Americas Championship 2022.
France move into the number two spot with 751.1 points after winning six of their seven games at the U17 Women’s World Cup 2022 finishing in third place with Australia sitting in third place with 698.4 points.
Spain’s runners-up finish in Hungary helped them move up one place to fourth spot. The country won six of seven games at the U17 WWC and took the silver medal at the FIBA U18 Women’s European Championship this summer.
Spain now has 697.4 points, just one less than Australia.
After Canada in fifth (681.2) are Hungary in sixth (674). Their U17 Women’s World Cup was particularly solid with five wins in seven games. They also won seven six of their seven games at the U16 Women’s European Championship 2022.
Lithuania move up at the number seven position (653.3) after their title at the FIBA U18 Women’s European Championship 2022.
Slovenia moved up 36 places to reach the top 10 as they occupy the ninth position. Slovenia’s rise owes to the country’s five wins in their seven games at the U-17 Women’s World Cup, including triumphs over Australia and Japan, two teams that entered the tournament in the top 10 of the ranking.