Nigeria Maintain 2nd Spot In Africa

With the 2011 season of FIBA continental and world championships coming to a close, Nigeria has been ranked the second best in Africa and placed 21st on the world stage.

FIBA Combined Ranking for 2011, which encompasses the results of the participating countries’ men, women, boys and girls’ teams in FIBA-sanctioned events sees Angola still Africa’s number one and 15th in the world.

Tunisia had a memorable 2011, with the senior men’s team beating the odds-and favourites Angola-to win its first-ever major international tournament at the FIBA Africa Championship in Madagascar.

The junior teams also played their part in the country’s rise up the ranking, as the U-16 boys and girls finished second and fourth respectively at the continental championships

The USA remain at number one with Spain once again their closest challengers.

Even with their senior national teams not in action, the USA managed to increase their advantage over their closest challengers and stand just under a thousand points clear of them.

This was accomplished, thanks to the USA’s boys and girls teams combining to successfully defending their crowns at the FIBA Americas U16 Championships.

All the while, their U-19 women completed a hat-trick of titles at the FIBA U19 World Championship in Chile.

For Spain, a high point in 2011 saw the senior men’s side repeat as champions of Europe in Lithuania.

However, in equal measure, there was huge disappointment as their female counterparts suffered an early exit at EuroBasket Women in Poland.

The Spaniards were also well served by their youth teams, which combined to win four of summer’s six European Championships Division A events.

—Bamidele Olowosegba