By JONAS TERRADO
The Philippines remained at No. 31 in the latest world rankings released by FIBA following the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics.
With 322.8 points, Gilas Pilipinas also kept its hold on being the sixth-best team in Asia, behind world No. 3 and Olympic bronze medalist Australia (690.5), No. 22 Iran (43.8.3), No. 25 New Zealand (369.3), No. 28 China (347.0) and No. 29 South Korea (336.0).
Gilas has been No. 31 since dropping from 30th in early-2019.
The new rankings also reflected recent activities by Gilas where it competed in the final window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers and the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Fielding young players outside of the PBA, Gilas swept all three games of the continental qualifiers in Pampanga, with two wins over archrival South Korea and one opposite Indonesia.
Gilas lost all of its two matches in the OQT held in Belgrade, Serbia, losing a tight one against the heavily-favored host country and Dominican Republic.
The rankings do not reflect the recent King Abdullah Cup in Jordan where Gilas placed fourth since it is not an official FIBA tournament.
Gilas was supposed to compete in the FIBA Asia Cup scheduled to start this week in Jakarta, Indonesia. But the tournament was moved to next year due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the said country.
The United States, which won the Olympic gold for the fourth straight time, is still at No. 1 with 765.2 points followed by Spain at 722.4.
Slovenia, falling short of a bronze medal and placed fourth in Tokyo, jumped 12 places higher at No. 4 with 675.9 with silver medalist France (670.5), Serbia (665.9), Argentina (655.3), Italy (649.3), Lithuania (647.4) and Greece (633.3) rounding out the top 10.
