Nigeria’s senior men’s team, D’Tigers, have dropped to 53rd in the world, following the latest rankings released by the global governing body, FIBA, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

After a summer of intense basketball activity, which saw continental tournaments take place across the globe, D’Tigers, who reached the quarter-finals of the 2025 FIBA AfroBasket tournament in Angola last month, dropped a massive 11 spots from 42nd in March 2025 to 53rd position in the world in September.

Furthermore, the 2015 African champions slipped from sixth to eighth on the continental rankings, amassing a total of 248.7 points compared to the 297.8 they had as at March earlier in the year. Nigeria were among the biggest droppers in the latest rankings alongside Morocco, Tunisia, Virgin Islands and Kosovo, while the biggest climbers include Mali, South Africa, Turkey, Cyprus and Jamaica.

The team, who were led to the quadrennial tournament by coach Mohammed Abdulrahman, did not have the smoothest of preparations leading up to AfroBasket 2025. At the tournament proper, Nigeria’s run saw them top Group B with six points, following victories against Madagascar, three-time champions Tunisia, and Cameroon during the round-robin phase. Their campaign ended when they faced Senegal in the last eight, which resulted in a 91-75 defeat, although the likes of Caleb Agada, Josh Okogie, Stan Okoye and Ike Nwamu were the top performers for D’Tigers during the competition.

Nigeria’s focus will now shift to the FIBA Men’s World Cup Qualifying Series set to commence in November, as they bid to secure a place for the next edition of the competition set to be held in Qatar in 2027, having missed out on the 2023 edition. The last time Nigeria featured at the FIBA Men’s World Cup was during the 2019 edition held in China, under the guidance of former head coach Alex Nwora.

Meanwhile, leading the rankings on the continent is South Sudan, who sit top with 446.7 points, although it dropped one spot from 23rd to 24th in the world. Newly-crowned AfroBasket champions, Angola, moved up four places to second on the continent and 29th in the world, while the Ivory Coast, Egypt, Senegal, Cape Verde, Tunisia, Cameroon and Mali make up the top ten places.

As expected, the United States of America occupy the number one spot in the world, having accrued 845.8 points. Reigning world champions Germany are second with 765.9 points, while Serbia, France and Canada sit inside the top five.