Nigeria’s men’s basketball team D’Tigers have taken a huge jump on the FIBA World Ranking following the Olympic Basketball Tournament just staged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The leap also follows coach William Voigt’s expression of strong desire to continue with the team.

The other three countries with notable jumps after Rio Olympics are Serbia, Venezuela and Brazil while Germany, Angola, Iran and Greece have had the biggest falls. While the Angolans were missing in action, Nigeria played at a second consecutive Olympics.
Venezuela (115.4), the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship winners, and Nigeria (106.2), who finished top of the AfroBasket 2015 podium, were at the Olympics and have risen to No. 15 and No. 16, respectively according to FIBA.com report.

Serbia (553 points), after winning two of their five games in Group A and then beating Croatia and Australia to reach the Final in Brazil, have leapfrogged Lithuania and France into third place. They now trail No. 1 USA (1000), who won a gold medal at the Olympics for a third straight time, and Spain (665), who finished third.

The Serbians  are well clear of No. 4 France (444), No. 5 Lithuania (442) and No. 6 Argentina (360).

Brazil (323) climbed two spots to No. 7 despite not advancing to the last eight. (The ranking is calculated within the scope of a two Olympic Games cycle, including qualifying competitions at FIBA Zone level, the organisers said).

Germany (31), Angola (66) and Iran (53.2) had the biggest falls in the ranking. Angola and Iran dropped eight places to No. 23 and No. 25, respectively, and Germany fell nine places to No. 29.

And just as the Olympics wound up, Voigt told The PUNCH he loved the discipline and determination always shown by his players and would love to continue with them.

He said, “These guys know my heart and soul is with them and what we’re trying to do. There’s been a fair amount of press already just on the hardships we’ve faced to get this far. Right now I’m just trying to catch my breath; it was a lot of effort just to get here. There’s no way my love and spirit for Nigeria and the guys in that locker room will ever change.”

http://punchng.com/world-ranking-big-jump-dtigers/

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