Slowly, the Philippines is inching closer to the top 50 in world basketball. The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) announced on Wednesday that the country has moved up 10 places to 53rd in the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) rankings this month.
SBP executive director Noli Eala said the country is now ranked first in the Southeast Asia (SEA) subzone and 13th overall in Asia, curiously still behind India, Syria and Kuwait. India is in joint 49th with Syria, while Kuwait is 52nd.
“We are grateful to Fiba that they continue to acknowledge the hard work of Filipino basketball players,” said Eala in a statement on Wednesday.
“It was hard inheriting a very low ranking from the previous national basketball association but the SBP has persevered and we’re glad the Philippines has regained the respect of Fiba and the basketball community,” he added.
In the women’s side, the Philippines improved to 50th from 53rd.
The women’s team is ranked ninth in the Asian and third in the SEA subzone behind Thailand (38th) and Malaysia (42).
In the combined rankings, the Philippines is in 57th place.
The country has registered the second-biggest gain in ranking points (2.7) among Asian countries behind Korea, which moved up to three ranking points.
Since taking over from the now-defunct Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) two years ago, SBP has put vigor in Philippine basketball by sending quality teams in international competitions.
The men’s basketball competition in the Southeast Asian Games is practically the Filipinos’ playground and the country, as expected, captured the 2007 title in Nakhon Ratchasima. The women’s team took the bronze medal.
The Chot Reyes-coached national team finished ninth overall in the 2007 Fiba-Asia Men’s Championship and the country improved a notch higher in the same competition when Yeng Guiao piloted the Nationals to a quarterfinals stint this year in Tianjin, China.
The youth programs are also in place as the U-18 of Franz Pumaren finished ninth in the Fiba-Asia Junior Men’s Championship in Tehran, Iran, in 2008 while the U-16 of mentor Eric Altamirano reached the semifinals of the Fiba-Asia U-16 cagefest on November in Malaysia.
The country’s men’s team also bagged the silver medal in the three-on-three event of the first Asian Beach Games in Bali, Indonesia, last year.
Even the young Smart Gilas team of SBP had a significant accomplishment this year when the squad, beefed up by American CJ Giles, finished fifth in the Fiba-Asia Champions Cup in June in Jakarta, Indonesia.
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