FIBA world ranking: USA remain on top, Slovenia, France break into top 5 / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: BNS, FIBA, Reuters - Scanpix | BasketNews illustration/A.Zaikauskas Credit BNS, FIBA, Reuters - Scanpix | BasketNews illustration/A.Zaikauskas

The FIBA World Rankings of Men's national teams have been updated following the completion of Olympic Qualifying Tournaments and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The big three remained unchanged: the USA, Spain, and Australia claiming first, second, and third spots, respectively.

The biggest jump was made by Slovenia which went up in the world rankings by 12 positions all the way to the No. 4 spot. Led by their superstar Luka Doncic, Slovenia continued their success from FIBA EuroBasket 2017 title to winning the OQT in Kaunas, Lithuania. The national team also captured 4th place in the Olympics.

According to the official FIBA website, among the different factors to consider when looking at Slovenia's jump was the fact they went into the OQT and the Olympics being No. 16 ranked team and beat higher-ranked opponents at both events - and by big margins, which also awards more points.

Slovenia won decisively at the OQT over both No. 13 Poland and No. 8 Lithuania, as well as claiming decisive victories over Angola and Venezuela. Then in Tokyo, among Slovenia's four wins were an 18-point triumph over No. 4 ranked Argentina and an eight-point defeat of No. 2 Spain.

The same principles applied to Germany and Italy. The latter team has risen from No. 10 to No. 8, while Germany went up from 17th spot to 11th.

After winning bronze medals at the FIBA World Cup in 2019, France won the Olympic silver medals this year. In Tokyo, the team captured 5 wins in 6 matches, therefore France has moved up two points to No. 5 in the rankings.

Argentina with Luis Scola in front reached the Quarter-Finals of the Olympics but the performance was not as successful as in China (2019). They lost three positions and dropped to a No. 7 spot.

Lithuania dropped one place to the No. 9 spot due to missing the Olympics for the first time since 1992. Greece fell by four positions to No. 10.

Japan - the host of the Tokyo Olympics made big steps forward from No. 42 to No. 35. Croatia which missed the Olympic Games and the World Cup dropped 7 positions to No. 21.

According to official information, the ranking has an eight-year competition window including two Olympic cycles (2020 not taken into consideration due to the pandemic), results from the London 2012 Olympics have dropped out while the Rio 2016 Olympics' results weightings went from .75 to .5.

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