Muslim Basketball

A couple points here or there and Tehran could’ve potentially finished 5-5. They have some guys who are pretty good players, but they’ll need a star or two if they have any hopes of penetrating the top 10. I think they matchup decently well against Alexandra, but Alexandria is a more refined and just overall better version of Tehran. They play a similar style of basketball, one that is predicated more on ball movement rather than iso-ball. This game may come down to who shoots the ball better, even though Alexandria is the superior group.

Gave Mecca everything it could handle, but came up a hair short. Said and Tayeb had outstanding games and pushed Mecca to the brink. That is what differentiates the contenders from the rest – they find ways to win the games they have a chance of winning. Tehran had a chance and could not capitalize.

Dominated Fez for their second win. Nice games from Moneeb Hassan and Ameen Ahad. They have two tough games to end the regular season. They struggle to score, but they can defend. Maybe they will be able to at least challenge Mecca, maybe.

Hasn’t been an easy season for the newcomers. They do have a chance against Fez though – they’ll need to contain Ed and challenge Jason in the paint. If they can do that, they may grab their second win of the year.

Not a bad loss, they challenged a very good Lahore team. This game was not as close at the score may tell, but they found a way to compete. They have 3 of the top 6 teams left on their schedule. It will be tough sledding if they keep playing the way they have been.

No offense to speak of, you just have no chance in this league scoring 26 in a game. They struggle shooting the ball and they give up 10 more points per game than they score. Other than a game against Fez, I cannot see them get any more wins this year. Hopefully they prove me wrong.

Just a terrible shooting game – they got some buckets to fall in the second half, but it just wasn’t enough to make things interesting. They just need to make more shots, easier said than done. Suba next week, so they should be able to compete and get a second win.

Beat a team that, on paper, should’ve beaten them – I applaud Tehran for that. They forced Sana’a to struggle, but man, they had an extremely ugly stretch when they just could not do anything. Luckily for them, Sana’a also couldn’t do enough to make them pay. Had a handful of guys in double digits, but no one really stood out and caught my eye. They played solid team defense, holding a capable scorer in Mo Amin to 14. Turnovers will be a problem when they play a team that can finish in transition.

Nobody might beat Dhaka this season, but I assure you that if only two guys show up to play, you will get smacked by the defending champs. Fortunately for Tehran, they hung in there for the first half. The knockout punch could’ve been much more ferocious than just the 18 point advantage Dhaka had in the second half. Credit to Tehran for hanging in there, but they’ll need better play all around if they want to win some games. They’ll be challenged next week by an above average Sana’a team that should be hungry following their loss to Amman.

Offense was poor and sloppy. Not much to say other than that they need to find a way to score and hold on to the ball. It’s tough to beat any team while committing almost 20 turnovers. Extremely tough matchup against Dhaka next week, if they struggle to click for a second straight week, they will get steamrolled.

 Captain Ali Omari returns from a two year hiatus with eight guys who will be making their Muslim Basketball debut. We’ve seen them play elsewhere – they have guys who can play, shoot, and defend. Not much else to go off of, but they are not a team to sleep on. Could very well make a push up the rankings as they have big matchups with Amman and Dhaka to start the season.