Muslim Basketball

I know they put up 104 on one of the lesser teams in the league, but this team’s been the best team in the league for a while now. Patrick had an unbelievable rookie season - now he’s looking to replicate it and cap off his sophomore campaign with a championship. If it wasn’t for an ankle injury in the semifinals, a healthy Patrick in the championship, we’d be calling Kazan the defending champs.

Weiss put together another very good team. Lost Goldberg, but looks like Pete Brown is filling the void (probably even outplaying Mombasa’s former center). Mo Masri also returns and rejoins Raza in the backcourt. The tandem has been very solid for the first two weeks of the season, if they can maintain this level of play, Pete continues to be dominant down low, Mombasa will be force to be reckoned with.

They robbed us of what would have been an early heavyweight matchup by not having enough guys to play against Kazan. It’s still early, but that would have been a pretty insightful game into seeing who is the best in the league. Week one, they gave Cordoba (a very solid team in their own right) the business, getting all their 76 points from four scorers. I don’t know too much about John Hassert, but Leonard, Michael, and Rameez are three of the better players in this league. If they show up consistently, this isn’t a group the should be taken lightly.

This group is always so good, but they cannot be giving up 53 while taking their foot completely off the gas in second halves of games. They know what it takes to win championships and I’m sure they know that second half effort against Istanbul was unacceptable. They have a stretch of tough games coming up, they’ll need to bring their A-game. They talked about going D1 since this league “wasn’t competitive enough” for them after winning three straight, show us that’s still true.

The loss of Big O has been overshadowed by Zain’s solid play thus far. They handled what should be a pretty good Mecca team with ease last week. Biggz has started the season off hot - he’s got to be the engine. He is by far the most consistent of his brothers and has the most diverse game. If this team looks to finally get their elusive championship, Bilal will have to be the guy that leads them. Look for him to have an MVP caliber season.

Ya’ll know this team. Mingo, Nick, and Hart have been getting better and better every year. They run with the same squad even though the teams around them have been improving, but they’ve all be improving themselves. Mingo is one of the hardest individual players to defend, Nick can strike at any moment, and Hart brings that perimeter attack that isn’t expecting from a dude his size. Impressive week one win, got it done against a lesser opponent in week two. 

Played in two of the toughest games so far this season. Could hand with Sarajevo in week one, but bounced back and had a very convincing second half against Jakarta, blowing the doors off the game by outscoring their opponent by 21. Kenny’s been the horse thus far, he just keeps getting better season after season. Add double double machine Luke Jenson and crafty/veteran ball handing from Jaber, Cordoba can play with the best of them.

The champs revamped their roster, most notably, adding veteran Muhammad Shabazz. They struggled against big teams last season, but they were able to handle one of the best front courts in Lahore. Anwar and Waqas will get theirs, Ahmed Odah showed he can go off and take a game on a moments notice. They have a nice thing going - don’t expect them to surprise anyone like last season, but this is a solid group that can take on the top.

Seems like a pretty similar squad to last season’s second overall seed entering the playoffs. They were one of the best defensive teams in the league, but struggled to score at times. They have a whole season together under their belt, look for their PPG to be in the upper half of the league, while that Points Allowed number stays in the top 5. That’s a very good combination to have - now it’s just about finding ways to get those timely baskets that win the important games. Big time let down in the first round of the playoffs last season, they look hungry to bounce back.

Any team with Mo Amin with be a pretty solid rebounding and defensive team, their biggest issue has been scoring the ball. As long as they stay in that 50-55 PPG mark, they’ll win a handful of games. They have a couple of tough games coming up, we’ll get a better understanding of what this team is.

You could team up Mo Abdelhadi with some 5th graders and you’d have a competitive team. Put him with some solid talent like Hamza Ahmad and Visar, and you have a really good group. Waiting to see them take on some better and more well rounded teams before running to conclusions, but I’ve been hearing a lot of whispers regarding how good this team can be. We’ll find out soon enough.

The combination of Frank, Ed, and Steve has been working offensively, but man I cannot imagine how disgusted Ibrahim Omar is with their defense. Didn’t see him last week against Cordoba, but he would have definitely had some words for his teammates following that second half effort. They should be a top team, but it almost seems too high putting them in the top half of the rankings. Maybe the return of Himey will trigger some much needed defensive effort.

A complete Cairo team is a scary sight: Abdul with one of the best big men in league by his side, frightening. 

Way too much talent to be 0-2. Anas and Qasem are two of the best scorers in the league, add the shooting of Malik and the front court of Ammar and Obada, you should have a pretty solid group. They’ll get it together.

Another kind of head scratching team. Ahmad Abdelghani and Miuhanad should be putting up better numbers than they are. Jawad should be doing something. They have some pretty capable players, but they just haven’t looked great yet.

Big time let down after a very impressive week one win. They have a big, tall, and long team, all around the court. They should be a top 10 defensive team, it will just come down to how much and Abdul Kareem create.

Probably the biggest disappointment two weeks into the season. Really expected this team to be very good. They have all the pieces to get it done, but it just doesn’t seem like they use them the right way. They’ll need to figure it out quickly or this season can take a downhill skid quickly.

They are really so impressive in how they keep games close and give themselves chances to win. Unfortunately, last season it didn’t translate to any wins. This season, they already have one under their belt and they took a top team to the brink, just couldn’t take the win. Amir has shown us that he’s one of the best scorers in the league. Also, new comer Tim Brown has been solid thus far. If they can just string together a couple wins, that would be momentum creating.

Two somewhat respectable losses. Pretty stout defensive team, cannot find ways to score though. It’s not easy beating good teams when you cannot score.

Really bad first three halves to the season, but the second half against Dhaka may have sparked something.

They have a couple guys that can play, they have some winnable games on their schedule. 

Unlike the bottom two teams, they haven’t look THAT bad.

Besides a matchup with Timbuktu, I don’t see many competitive games from them.

The 10 teams they play will probably have their highest point total in those games