Gilas Pilipinas rose one spot in the world rankings of FIBA men’s basketball following a sweep of its assignments in the fifth window of the World Cup Asian Qualifiers last week.
The nationals improved to the No. 40 spot largely due to their victories over Jordan and Saudi Arabia in their Middle East trip. The Filipinos conquered the Jordanians on their home turf with a 74-66 win before completing a repeat against the Saudis in 76-63 to wrap up the window.
However, Gilas' current spot remains far from its previous position of No. 34 before the August window of the qualifiers where the nationals split their assignments against New Zealand and India, and the forgettable campaign of the Filipinos in the FIBA Asia Cup where they missed on the quarterfinals.
Australia remained the best ranked team in the region at the third spot followed by Iran (20th), New Zealand (26th) and China (27th). Jordan occupied the 34th spot while Korea sat on the 36th place.
Japan also remains ahead of the Philippines as the seventh best team in Asia at the 38th spot while Lebanon is just lurking behind Gilas at the 42nd.
A shakeup at the top of the rankings was also seen as Spain took the pole from the USA which now slid down to the second spot. Argentina, France, Serbia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Greece and Italy rounded up the top 10.
Gilas will have another chance at improving its rankings ahead of the World Cup next year when it hosts Lebanon and Jordan in the sixth and final window of the qualifiers in February.