Nigeria national basketball team, the D’Tigers, have moved nine places in the latest FIBA World Ranking released on Thursday.
The African champions jumped from 25 to 16 on the global ranking for male basketball teams.
This massive rise comes after their impressive showing at the just concluded Rio Olympics.
Despite failing to make the quarter-finals, Coach Will Voigt’s team were superb – shocking European heavyweight, Croatia, and narrowly losing to Argentina, Spain and Brazil.
The Nigerians are the only African team in the top 20 – with their closest rival, Angola, ranked 23.
Serbia, 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, who won a gold medal at the Olympics for a third straight time, and Spain, who finished third.
European giants, France and Lithuania, are joined by South American heavyweights, Argentina and Brazil, in fourth, fifth, six and seventh respectively.
