Following their record-breaking performance at the just-concluded 2018 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, Nigeria’s women’s national basketball team, D’Tigress, have emerged as the highest climbers in the new rankings released by world basketball-governing body FIBA on Friday.
According to the rankings released by FIBA, Nigeria are the highest climbers in the table after they moved up 15 places from 34th before the World Cup to 19th.
D’Tigress have 76.6 points to become the second best team in Africa, replacing Angola.
D’Tigress finished eighth at the competition after becoming the first African team to win three matches at the World Cup and also the first African team to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament.
The coach Otis Hughley led team recorded three wins in a row over higher ranked sides Turkey, Argentina and Greece before losing to world number one USA in the quarter-final.
Senegal retained their spot as Africa’s number one team and 17th in the world – the position they were before the tournament – with 102 points. They finished 12th at the World Cup after losing their quarter-final play-off to Spain. Angola are third in Africa after dropping two spots to 20th.
Kano Pillars coach Sani Ahmed believes the team should have been ranked higher than that. Read more