Muslim Basketball

This is not a rush to judgement just because they beat the top team. Dhaka was shorthanded, no doubt about it. Islamabad has won two games to start their seasons against two of the top and most consistent teams in the league. Additionally, they have guys that are experienced and are willing to take on any challenge that faces them. Omar Abbassi is now 4 years removed from his last championship, and you want to question whether or not he wants it? When I look at this team, I see hunger, more hunger than in any other team. They are talented, maybe not the most talented, they are great, but maybe not the best in a seven game series, but man, that hunger, that desire to win puts them on the top of these rankings. Islamabad is 2-0 with arguably their best player struggling, when Bilal gets going, he’ll find himself as the catalyst of a team that desires nothing besides a championship.

They win games. Mo keeps putting up double-doubles, Raied matched and raised him this week. Why are they not #1? They do not bring it game in and game out. They win games that they should win by 20, by 5. They don’t run back on defense, they get discouraged when calls are missed. It’s still Week 2, but a championship mindset needs to be built from now. Islamabad appears to have that attitude, Sana’a does not. For now, advantage Islamabad. Way too early.

This is the most complete Alexandria team we have seen in the last couple seasons. They score, but they are controlling the glass (maybe not always winning the rebounding battle, but they are in the battle). They move the ball, they move without the ball, they keep possession of the ball, and they go take the ball. They’re a very good team and one that is built to take on bigger and more physical teams. Bernie is an MVP candidate, they’re taking and hitting a lot of 3s, and they aren’t getting utterly dominated by size. Giving up 18 and 17 to a big is not a good look, all those rebounds did not translate to succumbed points. They need to continue to play more physical and get accustomed to winning down low, because the top teams will challenge they there.

When two of your starting 5 is not there, it’s difficult to win. BUT…Farzad, you gotta do something, Salman, you cannot give up 18 and 15, and all of Dhaka, you cannot commit 16 turnovers. If they lost by 7 in a tight, well fought game, I can forgive them and look at it as an attendance issue. But besides Ameer, they’ve really struggled. Farzad does not look like himself, and except for a few moments, he hasn’t looked like himself for a significant stretch of games now. Besides the 27 and 21 Farzad had against Mecca last season, he hasn’t looked like the Summer 2016 Farzad that did what he wanted, when he wanted, to average 19 points per game on 50%+ from the field. I cannot see Dhaka being successful without him being a top 8 player in this league – the league is just that good now.

Moayad. Mana. Louis. 2-0. Do not see them in a game until week 6. Moayad has always been aggressive in his attack, but he’s playing on a different level now. Stronger and smarter with the ball, elusive and shifty, boy, he’s a load to defend. Go help on him? Louis. Let him drive but cut off with big? Mana. Game over.

Not really sure how I feel about their win. You’ll see how I really feel about Mecca sans Anas later, but I would’ve liked to see Tehran be a little more dominant against a vulnerable team. Especially after Tehran knocked off Jakarta week 1.

Jon Mingo, in my opinion, never gets the respect he deserves. Looking at the MB Fantasy Draft thread, I scratched my head when someone said he wasn’t deserving of being up there. Yes, maybe other players were left out, he deserves to be left in. He can ball and when he gets its going and wants to dominate, I would not want to be the opposing team. They amount of pressure he puts on the defense with his shot making ability, driving capability, and then offensive rebounding desire, he’s as good as they come. Maybe not as pretty numerically and stylistically as Popal or Anas Zubi, he deserves to have his name on that list. His teammates feed off of him and Beirut actually wins games AND championships. Drops mic.

Definitely did not deserve where they were ranked last week and they played like they knew that. They found it early and often, lost it, then found a way to take it at the end. Jawad almost did it last week and Mujtaba did it this week, cold-blooded.

They’ve come out asleep for the first two weeks of the season now, but they’ve overcome cold starts to fight back and easily take a game, then almost take a game if it wasn’t for livestock that escaped from the farm before Eid (Mujtaba, Goat. Lol). 43 from Qasem and Anwar, while making Mujtaba work very hard. Going to keep a close eye on this group – they’ve shown some promise, but there’s a little bit more work to be done if they want to enter the ultimate conversation.

I’m not sure how to feel because seeing a zero in the Suba loss column feels too new. Good work fellas.

Not sure how long they can stay out of the top 10 with Raza dropping 22 and filling out the entire stat sheet with a supersized sharpie (11 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals, 0 turnovers) and with Youssef out there just being smooth. Daniel added 9 points and 11 rebounds, Sadat dished 8 times. Let’s see the consistent success now.

I’m really not sure what to say. With Anas every part of this team clicks – Malik’s 3s fall, they run in transition, they secure the ball, and they get boards, but without him, they have looked just flat out terrible. Jaber is supposed to be a guy who has run and has lead a D1 team to a championship, and now has had 2 opportunities to be the leader of Mecca and has not been able to do so. This team is back to square 1 – live and die by Anas Zubi. And to be honest, that may not be as bad as it sounds. When he returns, so will Mecca, but for now…?

For two weeks now, Kareem Ahmed has shown that he can play. The rest of his squad brought it and they got a win. Keeo doing that and they’ll find themselves with more wins than losses.

The box score is not pretty. A lot of low numbers, but most striking, is the goose egg by Hamza Karkis’ name. Gotta go get it every week – cannot score 17 then 0. Regardless, they still found a way to be competitive against a very good team. Still saying what I have said so far, they’re getting better.

22 from Mahmoud and Adam will not win them many games. Those are the two guys who have to score a combined 30-35 to make up for some of the struggled the rest of their offense has. When your defense is good, but your offense is bad, it’s difficult to win games.

Challenged a solid team and forced Sana’a to struggle, but it was available for them to take, and they did not.

Nothing encouraging from that performance. At all.

How you give up 48 and win is beside me. How you give up 48 and move up in the PR is also beside me. They aren’t a good team, but they played against a bad team, got punched extremely hard in the face, and still managed to win. Hats off to that? *P.S – Ed: no I will not write about the 36 you had. Go play defense*

On paper and in the box score, Riyadh should be winning games. But they don’t. And I don’t know why. If I did, I wouldn’t be spending Tuesday nights writing the power rankings. 4 guys in double digits, -5 turnover margin but +3 on the glass.

Someone other than Rameez needs to rebound. Cannot get dominated on the glass against a team that likes to control the ball and execute. The 38 from Leonard and Rameez was canceled by the 40 put up by the Mombasa duo. 10% from 3 also not a key to winning games.

It’s not even like Abdul is chasing points and putting up bad shots. He’s been efficient and really is not forcing shots. Someone else will have to defend or do something to allow Abdul to be the difference. How do you give up 36 points to a 32 year old old-man and father?!

33ppg....League leader: 39ppg