Muslim Basketball

They’re back. Omar Abbassi, Biggz, and Co. are ready for a legitimate championship run. The offense doesn’t always click, but the second chance points and defense put them at the top of the rankings to start the season. They held off a couple Granada runs to start the season off with a W, led by 16 from Fursan and double double machine, Billal - they might have two guys averaging double doubles by the times we’re all said and done.

A squad that never gets the credit they deserve and a star that doesn’t get the shine he deserves. Mingo gets it done on both sides of the floor, inside and outside, and finds a way to get his team wins. Impressive win to start the season off, knocking off the defending champs. 

Didn’t go up against terrific competition like some of the other top teams, but wow this team looks good. Abdul, Moayad, and Qasem combined for 51, Marwan will get his, and then add Mana…LOADED.

We all saw what Mark could do, but oh man, 39 and 13 in Patrick’s debut! Kazan has two tremendous players and is definitely a force to be reckoned with. 

Feels kind of weird putting them all the way up here. I feel like they don’t have enough, especially with the loss of Yousef, but they just showed that they do in fact have enough to beat the best of them. Still weary though - CAUTION.

I like what they’ve done with the addition of Ed. Jaber is a tremendous point guard who can facilitate and score, Malik is best when other guys are taking up the attention, and Ammar, Obada, and Hamza make a pretty solid front court. They are definitely a team that likes to run and gun, my main concern is how do they win games when they cannot hit shots. I don’t know if they have that second gear defensively, but I also don’t know if they’ll ever really have to play much defense. They held Tehran to 28 points, but I think it would be fair to say that Tehran held themselves to 28 points.

Jon and Herb carried the load, accounting for 80% of the team’s points. That was to be expected, now can it be sustained? They’re both two of the better players in the league, I’m sure they’ll take what defenses throw at them. What I would like to know though, is who becomes the third option. They’ll need a lot of offense against this potent Mecca squad.

Championship champagne still didn’t wear off. They’ll be back.

Some gritty players then add scoring leader Abdul and Steve and you have a really well balanced team. They should be able to score and defend. What I would keep my eye on though, is the efficiency. Abdul takes and misses (and also makes) a ton of shots. As long as the rest of the team remains engaged, they can be a force.

Did not see this coming.

Almost stormed back to steal this one from Islamabad, but came up a hair short. Seems like George is a solid replacement for the departed Omar Qasem. Islamabad gave it to them on the offensive boards, a deficiency of having a somewhat small roster.

That was not good. Thought Mo Amin would be a seamless fit into what they try to do, but it seemed forced to start the year. He took shots he didn’t look comfortable taking and everyone else seemed a bit passive. They’re a big team, not really a spread and shoot game. Cannot try to outshoot a teams, especially the likes on Mecca. They need to slow games down, keep teams to 40 points, and own the paint.

Comeback from double digits down, not against the greatest completion though. Layth is a pretty solid player and Raied can also be very effective. He seemed to be laboring a bit with a hurt wrist, at 100% he could get Timbuktu a handful of wins.

Saw some occasional flashes out of Rmazy, but just zero efficiency from the team as a whole. Very choppy and sloppy play, no rhythm and flow. Maybe just a slow start.

Rameez is solid, but they need someone else along side him. The league is too good.

It must be the team name because regardless of the roster, Suba is always playing in some really unbearably ugly games. 

Cannot be giving up leads like this. Ammar and Mahmoud are solid enough to challenge teams, but they’ll need some more elsewhere to win games.

Great first half, forgot what defense was in the second.

Still didn’t learn too much about this group, seems like Mohammed Rayyan will be their guy.

Didn’t have enough fire power to match Sana’a, but also didn’t play enough defense to keep it interesting.