Canada shoots up nine spots in latest FIBA world rankings

After their latest showing on the world stage, Canadian basketball fans are feeling pretty good about the future.

In case you forgot, over the weekend, the Canadian men’s basketball team topped their American rivals in the bronze medal game of the FIBA World Cup, coming away with an overtime victory.

The 127-118 win over their continental rivals helped them take home third place at this year’s edition of the tournament, which saw them finish with an overall record of 6-2 and secure their first spot in the Olympics in over 20 years.

Now, that achievement has also helped Canada rise a whole nine spots in the FIBA world rankings since the qualifying round back in February. In the newly updated rankings, out of 159 countries on the list, the Canadian men’s team now occupies the sixth position with 745.5 points.

The USA also returned to the very top of the rankings after outperforming former No. 1 seed Spain in the most recent tournament.

It’s worth noting that since FIBA’s ranking system considers the past eight years of international performance, the Americans were still able to reclaim first despite not having a podium finish at this year’s World Cup.

Meanwhile, Germany, who won the tournament on Sunday, has stepped into the top three of the global rankings for the very first time after moving up a massive eight places with 759.7 points.

The most significant jump, though, belongs to Latvia. The Northern European nation home to Oklahoma City Thunder forward Davis Bertans moved up a whopping 22 places into the top 10. Much of that ascension is thanks to their outstanding performance at the latest FIBA tournament, where they secured fifth place.

They now hold the eighth position, with 743.7 points — just 0.1 shy of Argentina in seventh.

Following the latest World Cup, the global top 15 are as follows:

FIBA

You might also like:
• Raptors' Schröder mobbed on return to Germany after FIBA World Cup win