USA Keeps No. 1 FIBA Ranking Despite 7th Place Finish

Post #1 » by **RealGM Wiretap** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 3:00 pm

The United States have kept their No. 1 ranking in the FIBA men's rankings despite a seventh place finish in this year's World Cup.

The top spot has been held by the United States for nine straight years since winning the 2010 world championship.

The FIBA rankings take results from the most recent eight years into account.

Spain remained at No. 2, while Australia jumped eight spots to No. 3. Argentina and France rounded out the top-5.

Via ESPN

IWishIWasHarden · Post #2 » by **IWishIWasHarden** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 3:27 pm

Paty Mills and Joe Ingles are the third best team in the world and USA 8th. Hilarious.

RiRuHoops · Post #3 » by **RiRuHoops** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 3:53 pm

Spain are reigning champs and didn't move up in the rankings? WTF?

meekrab · Post #4 » by **meekrab** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:00 pm

RiRuSuns wrote:Spain are reigning champs and didn't move up in the rankings? WTF?

Hard to move up when there's only one spot above you.

chudak · Post #5 » by **chudak** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:03 pm

IWishIWasHarden wrote:Paty Mills and Joe Ingles are the third best team in the world and USA 8th. Hilarious.

Australia was 11th, and finished 4th in the competition, but is now 3rd in overall ranking?

How does this work?

Popsicle1228 · Post #6 » by **Popsicle1228** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:16 pm

Wow! I am a USA Basketball fan but what a slap in the face to the rest of the World. After a 7th place finish on the world stage, I can think of 6 other teams who in the present do FIBA better than USA Basketball does.

An 8 year ranking system? May be time to rethink the system.

RiRuHoops · Post #7 » by **RiRuHoops** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:37 pm

meekrab wrote:
RiRuSuns wrote:Spain are reigning champs and didn't move up in the rankings? WTF?

Hard to move up when there's only one spot above you.

After 7th place finish US deserved to drop a spot. And even at full strength US could lose a game in a tournament to full strength Spain. So it's not like it's unthinkable and US shouldn't hold a god like status in the rankings.

LAKESHOW · Post #8 » by **LAKESHOW** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:45 pm

Thank goodness they did not take the celtics into consideration. No matter how hard they tried to drop us in rankings

MoMM · Post #9 » by **MoMM** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:55 pm

chudak wrote:
IWishIWasHarden wrote:Paty Mills and Joe Ingles are the third best team in the world and USA 8th. Hilarious.

Australia was 11th, and finished 4th in the competition, but is now 3rd in overall ranking?

How does this work?

Probably they dropped their ranking from 2 WC ago for this 4th place and that ranking was awful, but even so, it seems really weird.

Brazil climbed 1 spot to 11th.

valrond1 · Post #10 » by **valrond1** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:28 pm

Popsicle1228 wrote:Wow! I am a USA Basketball fan but what a slap in the face to the rest of the World. After a 7th place finish on the world stage, I can think of 6 other teams who in the present do FIBA better than USA Basketball does.

An 8 year ranking system? May be time to rethink the system.

Well, it's 8 years, maybe a bit too much, but it shouldn't be less than 5. USA has won the 2014 WC and the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, so it is only natural they stay on top. Spain only got off the medals in our own WC in 2014 in that awful QF game with France were nobody knew how to score (52 points). But they are closer than ever before.

the13thjoker · Post #11 » by **the13thjoker** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:57 pm

If FIBA want the US to take the world Cup seriously they need to make the rankings matter. Drop the US and watch them show up with a full strength squad every year.

JonFromVA · Post #12 » by **JonFromVA** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:14 pm

I have no clue how FIBA arrives at these rankings, but fact is the odds are pretty low that the best team wins a one and done tourney unless they're otherworldly good. Losing 2 games, though, should have sealed the deal if the rankings were just about recent events, though.

Post #13 » by **Harry Garris** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:02 pm

JonFromVA wrote:I have no clue how FIBA arrives at these rankings, but fact is the odds are pretty low that the best team wins a one and done tourney unless they're otherworldly good. Losing 2 games, though, should have sealed the deal if the rankings were just about recent events, though.

They're not just about recent events, that's probably why the US retained their #1 ranking. Despite losing 2 games in this tournament the last time they lost a game in international competition was what, 10 years ago?

IAMZOOTED2 · Post #14 » by **IAMZOOTED2** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 8:06 pm

Using the last 8 years to determine who's number one is akin to voting the same way your grandma did, just cause that's how she voted... Or worse, hating someone you don't know because your fellow countrymen have had past problems with them

JonFromVA · Post #15 » by **JonFromVA** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 9:36 pm

Harry Garris wrote:
JonFromVA wrote:I have no clue how FIBA arrives at these rankings, but fact is the odds are pretty low that the best team wins a one and done tourney unless they're otherworldly good. Losing 2 games, though, should have sealed the deal if the rankings were just about recent events, though.

They're not just about recent events, that's probably why the US retained their #1 ranking. Despite losing 2 games in this tournament the last time they lost a game in international competition was what, 10 years ago?

Makes sense, heck, Spain lost 2 games in the qualifiers. If they're counting those and not weighting it, that alone would cancel out USA's 2 loses.