Muslim Basketball

The champs! If they plan on holding teams to less than 40 points again, watch out. Ayem, Aytac, and Sasa are three of the best and bring it on both sides of the floor for forty minutes. Let’s see if they get hit with the championship hangover. With this group though, I doubt it – look for them to pickup exactly where they left off.

Patrick Jaramillo. There’s high expectations. Smelled the trophy last time they played in Coastal. Kazan adds an extremely underrated piece in John Hart. I don’t love the Shabazz move, he might irk his teammate, but he’ll be a tremendous addition to Kazan’s love to run out in transition. Dude insists on pushing the ball, Patrick loves to run out (some may call it cherry-picking, eh, I don’t see it that way.)

Seems as though the “Dhaka era” has officially come to an end after they fell short last season of re-asserting themselves as the league’s best and dropped a few players. Though Ali’s missing, Michael Rawls is more than just a suitable substitute. Needless to say, still hold at least one team practice the week before you face these guys.

They’re the Patriots of Muslim Basketball. Everyone knows that they are good, they are good, run into a couple of bumps here and there, finish as a top 3 team, compete, if not win, for the championship. They plug guys in and out while maintaining the same core. Goldberg out, Pete Brown in, Pete Brown out, Paul Sullivan in. We’ll see you guys in late March.

on’t call is a comeback. Anas Zubi returns and if he’s able to produce 75% of what he used to, you have a championship level squad in Medina. Big O, Biggz, Anas, Jawad, Shareef…that’s a load. Add Omar ‘Bunnies’ Elsamna and Himey and you have a really well rounded team that can beat you in many ways.

One of the best defensive teams last season, but really struggled to score consistently. They lost Yaqob, but picked up a couple new faces. Bottom line for this group is, be consistent. Mo Amin’s squad averaged 53ppg last season and finished 7-5 including the playoffs, had they scored 53 points in each game, they would’ve been 10-1. It’s not about scoring 73 & 80 points for this team, it’s about finding a way to consistently score 50-55 while playing terrific defense.

Help me make sense out of this. The championship team of two seasons ago that was lacking a true big man has now added Daniel Goldberg? And add Sehwail and Diya instead of George? And they’re playing at Coastal again?!?! Regular season should be up and down due to insane competition, despite the extremely talented likes of the Ahmad brothers, but don’t cancel out the possibility of another Cinderella story come playoff time.

This has never been a team to mess with, and after losing one game into the playoffs last season, you know that Cordoba’s planning on making their way to the top again. Kenny’s a proven scoring threat, and in bringing back effective names along with re-adding Walter Bravo, it’s safe to assume that this team will go far.

The only category that this team didn’t finish in the top 5 in last season other free throw percentage was rebounding. They’ve since added Ammar Idelbi and Luke Mullaney… problem solved! Despite dropping arguably the top Abbassi brother, The other 3 should be more than comfortable adding the other acquisitions to their league-leading chemistry. & if Idris decides to shoot 43% from three point range again, then I’d think twice about playing zone.

This is a team that many of us felt could’ve made a significant playoff run come mid-season with the acquisition of players like Tim Brown, and other replacements from the original 0-10 team. Even though they fell short in their first game of the playoffs last season, insane scoring bursts from Amir Charrkas will keep the league watching as this one progresses. And add Mark Oliver?!?! Final four is calling.

All eyes will be on Moayad and Mana, don’t be surprised if Ahmad Saleh is their X-factor. He had a career season two seasons ago in Coastal. Not sure what to make of Jeremy and Kyle, but if they’re any good, this could be a real solid squad.

Only ONE potential factor can deprive this team of the championship run its more than capable of making. Sha-ring-the-ball. Offensively, any Anas Najib-lead squad can take you passed teams in close games. Add Muntasir, Raied, and Khalied and your looking at an unstoppable scoring threat of a combination. Any successes this team has are contingent upon their unselfishness. Hamza will pay his dues on the defensive end. Just worry about passing.

A 10 man roster never seems to adjust well in the MB system, but who better to crack that issue than the goat himself, Edriss Froogh! This team is loaded with shooters, from Malik to Joe P, and shouldn’t have a difficult time getting 50+ with the likes of Steve leading the way. Veteran leadership will give their opponents some trouble.

When you take a look at Jon Mingo’s stat line, it’s understandable to think he’s doing a great job padding them. But if you’ve watched Beirut’s games over the past couple of seasons, you’d realize that he does do a little bit of everything (and efficiently), but also that he needs to. Mingo and Nick will make or break this team depending on consistency, but let’s see if some new additions take them back to the finals in MB’s most competitive season.

Any team with Leonard is a pretty good one. If they can get maximum production from Lionel, Rameez, and Saad, they can win a handful of games. Might not be enough to defeat the top teams, but they have a solid group who should definitely compete.

Can’t say much about their roster outside of Mujtaba and Yousef, but with just those two guys, Tripoli will be a force. Muj is one of the best, if not the best in the league. Yousef had a tremendous rookie season, but fell a bit victim to the sophomore slump. If they have a couple guys who can complement Muj, watch out.

Abdul’s been lighting it up the last three seasons. Defenses try to zero in on him as much as they can, but if you’re leaving Bilal Ghous and Yaqob to send extra defenders at him, good luck. This team is going to put up points, hopefully they find a way to do so efficiently.

Interesting move going on here with a Omar Qasem-lead squad that’s given some much needed respect to Damascus’s name. The disadvantage that jumps out to me is size, but if they utilize the opportunities they have to space the floor with shooters like Omar Hussein and Marwan Tamimi, then we’re looking at a pretty solid group.

First look through their roster had me scratching my head a bit at who they plan on scoring the ball. They have some pretty respectable guys, but no one pops out as ‘the guy.’ Could be Hosam Karkis’ chance.

The phrase “This team took the league by storm” worked the other way around with last year’s Alexandria squad. A bunch of rookies lead by a good player in Muhammad Mustafa seemed to not have known the type of competition that they’d be up against. Despite having lost their best player in Collin, I’m sure necessary adjustments have been made to avoid facing the same embarrassment as they did last season.

Not too much I can say about this squad. If they’re anything like last season, then I can confidently congratulate anyone reading this on the W that will be taken the week you face this team on your respective schedule. Unless of course they’ve made some GM of the year worthy acquisitions…

Not many familiar names, so there isn’t much we can say about this group. Very curious how they find a way to rotate with a ten-man roster.