Munich (Germany) – A quick quiz for basketball fans: Who is the hottest team in the world right now?
Which team is ranked No. 1 in the FIBA world rankings announced by Nike? no.
Who is Germany the new winner of FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023? Please try again.
Is Spain the current FIBA EuroBasket champion? Not again.
No, the hottest team in the world right now is Latvia. Yes, it’s a small country in Northern Europe with a population of 1.88 million people, ranked 8th in the world.
Since then, Latvia has won 23 of 26 games, including the first two games of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers, as first reported by SportsCenter. The only country where she won 80% of her FIBA official matches during the same period is Australia.
“I’m not counting,” Bunchy commented. “I’m not attracted to those numbers. We know we have to win the next game. We still have the same approach from the beginning. We still remain humble and we We want to continue to have the desire to prove that we are worthy of such a level.” That we belong to this level. ”
| # | Country |
victory | loss | win percentage |
1. |
twenty three | 3 | 88.5 | |
2. |
27 | Four | 87.1 | |
3. |
31 | 8 | 79.5 | |
Four. |
twenty three | 7 | 76.7 | |
Five. |
twenty five | 8 | 75.8 |
Latvia started the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifier with two wins, defeating Spain 79-75 on the road, and eventually came behind Slovakia with a 64-52 victory at home.
and latvia too need They have already qualified for next summer’s major tournament as one of the four co-hosting countries, so it is important that they make it through the qualifying rounds.
“We are reaching the highest level in the history of Latvian basketball,” said head coach Luka Banki. “We’re really proud of this. But we still keep the same spirit, the same approach and keep the engine running. That’s our secret.”
And relations between Latvia and Banki were golden from the beginning.
The Latvian basketball world was asking itself in February 2021 after failing to qualify for FIBA EuroBasket 2022 and missing out on the continental tournament for the first time since 1999. A month later, they hired Banki as their new coach.
In his first game under coach Banki, Latvia achieved a 4-0 record in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 European Qualifiers. After that, they won 11 wins and 1 loss in the European qualifiers and qualified for their first World Cup with 11 consecutive wins.
Making their debut on the world stage, Banki’s men made it through the two group stages in Jakarta, shocking France, Spain and Brazil.
Latvia then missed a 3-point shot by Davis Bertans in the quarterfinals in Manila, but they bounced back strongly and defeated Italy and Lithuania to take fifth place and make their first World Cup appearance.
And Latvia returned home as a hero.
What was impressive was all the “powerhouses” that Latvia had defeated so far. Before defeating these powerhouses at the FIBA World Cup, Latvia defeated Serbia once in qualifying and had two wins each against Greece, Turkey, Belgium, and England.
Bunchy said his team truly lives off the passion of its fans. He has to “fill the tank with the enthusiasm of the fans and the desire of the players to be involved.”
Bunchy and his team are hoping to build on the momentum of the FIBA World Cup. But he also said this is the beginning of a new chapter.
“It was very important for us to approach this new chapter with such a performance. The team is very well prepared. They are approaching Team Latvia in a completely different way.
“We got through the trouble with a very solid team performance. We kept our cool and showed everyone that we were ready to fight even when the games were close, and that bodes well for us. .”
Banki’s team showed determination and motivation to the fans at Arena Riga, giving them something to look forward to as they welcome Latvia from the continent next summer.
No one knows whether Latvia will still be the hottest team in the world by then. But they are right now.
FIBA