Nigeria’s senior men’s basketball team, D’Tigers, have fallen to 53rd in the world, following the latest rankings released by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
After a busy summer of global basketball activity, including continental tournaments, Nigeria dropped 11 places from 42nd in March to 53rd in September. On the continental ladder, the 2015 AfroBasket champions also slipped from sixth to eighth, now holding 248.7 points compared to 297.8 earlier this year.
Nigeria’s sharp decline places them among the biggest fallers in the rankings, alongside Morocco, Tunisia, Virgin Islands, and Kosovo. Meanwhile, Mali, South Africa, Turkey, Cyprus, and Jamaica made significant gains.
D’Tigers, led by coach Mohammed Abdulrahman, reached the quarter-finals of the 2025 AfroBasket in Angola but suffered a 91–75 defeat to Senegal. Their campaign had started brightly, with group-stage victories over Madagascar, three-time champions Tunisia, and Cameroon, before their run ended in the last eight. Top performers included Caleb Agada, Josh Okogie, Stan Okoye, and Ike Nwamu.
Nigeria will now turn focus to the FIBA Men’s World Cup Qualifiers in November, as they push to secure a place at the 2027 edition in Qatar, having missed out on the 2023 tournament. The last time D’Tigers played at the World Cup was in 2019, China, under coach Alex Nwora.
On the continental scene, South Sudan remain Africa’s top-ranked team with 446.7 points, though they slipped from 23rd to 24th in the world. Newly-crowned AfroBasket champions Angola climbed four spots to second in Africa and 29th globally, followed by Ivory Coast, Egypt, Senegal, Cape Verde, Tunisia, Cameroon, and Mali in the top ten.
Globally, the United States continue to dominate with 845.8 points. Germany (765.9), Serbia, France, and Canada round out the world’s top five.
