By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas moved up four rungs to No. 34 in the FIBA world rankings following its exploits during the Olympic Qualifying tournament where it pulled off the massive upset against then No. 6 Latvia last month.
The Nationals, previously at the 38th spot, already leapfrogged Jordan, which fell three places to No. 35, as the seventh best team in Asia.
Gilas was also only one of the two teams inside the Top 10 of Asia that made a leap in the rankings – the other being Japan which made a good account of itself in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
All the other teams dropped a couple of places including Australia which fell one spot to No. 7 although still enough to remain as the best team in the Asian-Pacific region and the only one inside the Top 10.
Japan, meanwhile, improved five spots to No. 21, overtaking New Zealand, which fell one place to No. 22 as the continent’s second best team. Iran, Lebanon, and China all fell one spot.
Iran is now at the 28th, Lebanon the 29th and China the 30th in the rankings.
The huge leap in Gilas ranking in the world stage was largely due to its strong showing in the FIBA OQT in Riga, Latvia where it reached the semifinals.
The Filipinos, led by naturalized import Justin Brownlee, racked up a 1-2 record throughout the tournament although the lone win was enough to send shockwaves in the international scene after Gilas took down erstwhile world No. 6 Latvia, 89-80 right on its home turf.
It also came as a historic win for the Filipinos who finally beaten a European squad in a major tournament for the first time in over six decades
The Nationals were actually in a position to advance to the tournament finals despite a close 96-94 loss to the No. 23 Georgia to wrap up the group stage, if not for a 71-60 setback to the still world No. 12 and eventual tournament champion Brazil.
The world rankings also saw a major shakeup in the leaderboard although USA remained untouched at No. 1 after winning the gold medal in the Paris Games.
The change however began at the second spot, not at the hands of Serbia which was previously fourth in the world. It is followed by Germany which remained steady at the third spot while Olympic finalist and host France moved up five spots to No. 4.
Canada climbed two spots to No.5, followed by Spain, which fell four places from previous No. 2 to No. 6. Argentina remained at the eighth spot after Australia while Gilas’ OQT victim, Latvia slid to No. 9 followed by Lithuania, wrapping up the top 10.
