Muslim Basketball

Big win against a top playoff team in Granada. This was a statement win, proving they are the team to beat going into the playoffs. Mo stepped up big in this one, hitting 7-13 from behind the arc. Pete with a pedestrian 24 and 15. They will be on their couches week 1 of the playoffs, as they enjoy the #1 seed.

Forfeit win. It may end up hurting Dhaka as they are the #2 seed and now have another week off with a bye. Will they come into the playoffs rusty?

A forfeit loss dropped them out of contention for the bye week and made them lose all tiebreakers in seeding, but it doesn’t change the fact that they are one of the best teams in the league. They play an underperforming Damascus squad week 1 of the playoffs. They should cruise, but its playoffs so you never know!

A close win against Kashgar isn’t necessarily the confidence booster they were looking for to end the regular season. BAKH and the Yanes took care of business nevertheless, and have a cake walk against Delhi next week. Remember, Delhi beat Sarajevo week 9, so they are looking to add another upset!

A classic 4v4 battle. The craziest stat to me is the fact that Skyler averaged just 5.25 boards per game, and he ended with 24 rebounds! I know Kenny dropped 41, Ed almost had a triple-double, Steve had 24 and 17, but Skyler! Jakarta slowly crept up the rankings and ended the season top 5, probably where they deserved to be all along.

Sarajevo is now entering the playoffs coming off back to back losses. They still were able to grab a bye week, but they cannot be happy with their performance as of late. Aymen and Justin combined for 3-24 from the field. Yikes. Hopefully this bye week will help them out.

Kenny made sure they did not lose this game. He was hot from all over, and with William and Ryan grabbing all of the boards (27 combined), Cairo just couldn’t close out. They are sitting pretty with a bye week, and await the winner of Bukhara vs Medina.

You can always count on Islamabad to have the most spread out scoring ever. I am not sure if I should be crediting how great Islamabad played, or Kabul not having their key players. It is obviously out of their control, and they did what they had to do winning by a convincing 23 points.

The stats confuse me. Mo played and was 1-3? Did he get injured? Is it a mistake? Either way, without Mo and Ameed present and at full strength, this team isn’t going too far. With them on the other hand, they are one of the best teams in MB.

Is Kazan back? Big victory against the previous #1 ranked team. This is what they needed as they look to head back to the championship with hopefully a different outcome.

This game proved that Granada could go toe to toe with any team this season. Yes, they lost, but they were within grasp of arguably the best team in the league. Jon was spectacular, but he couldn’t get much from his counter-part, Anas. They play Cairo first round as they look to avoid an upset.

Unlike Sarajevo, Bukhara did what they were supposed to do when they play a bottom-ranked team, they won by 33. Their “Big 3” (Ahmed, Mustafa, Matt) shot a combined 35-53 (66%) from the field! That kind of efficiency will get you a win every single time. This team will make it further than their seed shows.

Ended their regular season with a win, and because they finished with a solid 7-3 record, they have a cupcake matchup round 1 of the playoffs against Palermo. Beating Damascus by 4 won’t move you up in the power rankings, though. They moved down solely because other teams had more impressive wins than them.

No Muj again, and they almost lost to the bottom of the barrel. Jean, Visar, and Yousef were able to hold them off, even after being down 7 at the half. If this team wants to come close to repeating, they have to have full attendance, and they have to play better defense. 60 points tied Riyadh’s season high points total.

Fez has now won 6 of their last 7 games. They were an afterthought in the beginning of the season, and now going into the playoffs super-hot and looking to upset someone. Their first game is against Kashgar, but if they win that game, they are looking to possibly upset Timbuktu in the second round.

This isn’t the type of win they were looking for either, as a game against Palermo should have just been practice. It is rare you see a team shoot 25.8% from the field and 14.3% from 3 and still win. They have to improve those numbers drastically if they want to beat Tehran next week. Suba is the higher seed on paper, but Tehran is the favorite.

They have had attendance issues all season, usually having to play with 5. They didn’t have enough and took a forfeit loss to end the season, bringing their seed down to 17. They have Suba round 1, and Tac and team are no pushovers.

People always say “[insert team name] will only go as far as [insert best player name] take them.” I actually think it is the opposite in Cairo’s case. AMP is going to do what he always does every single game. With Cairo, they are only going to go as far as the rest of the team can take them. AMP needs to the supporting cast to play a role. He cannot do it by himself. Who will step up?

Sana’a failed to end the season .500. They didn’t seem to have an answer for Amir from behind the arc. Colin & Clayton will definitely have their hands full first round, as they take on the defending champs, Tripoli. They better hope Muj doesn’t show up if they want a shot at moving on.

Forfeit win for Medina this week. They can look at it as a bye week to get ready to play Bukhara. Matt and Big O will be a handful. Medina has to try and control the rebounding to have a chance at upsetting Bukhara.

They are going into the playoffs coming off a win, which is a positive. Their entire team showed up to play Mecca and it resulted in a W. Now for the negative. They have a matchup against Kazan round 1, who demolished them by 43 points earlier in the season. They are dead last in the league in points per game, and they’re going to need every single one this Saturday.

Another respectable performance from Josh and team. Playing with 5, they came up just short on upsetting Timbuktu in the regular season finale. Although they are going into the playoffs as a 22 seed, I can definitely see them stealing a win first round. Josh needs to continue to be the main guy with the ball in his hands, and let him create for the rest of the team.

Baghdad was absolutely crushed in the 4v4 game. Arcenio had a career high with 27 which is good to see, but the defense was non-existent. Once a team scores 3 digits on you, it’s a wrap. Timmy has to show up for Baghdad to have a 5% chance of beating Islamabad in the playoffs.

They were almost able to grab their second real win of the season, but fell short. Moayad and the Omar’s are the offensive catalysts on this team. They have to shoot more efficiently. They may get lucky if Amman doesn’t have enough players to play, or if they have to play shorthanded. If Amman shows up with a full squad, it’ll be lights out for Damascus.

Looks like Delhi went back to their “getting blown out” ways, losing by a whopping 33 points. Ahmad shot lights out, and I am not sure why he didn’t get more shot attempts. 29 points on 12 shot attempts is very impressive. Just going by results from this season, look for Delhi to get blown out first round by 20+. I hope they prove me wrong like they did against Sarajevo!

I don’t know any other way to put this, but Mecca was atrocious. They shot a dreadful 18.8% from the field, and had only one assist the entire game. I have been lucky enough to never see this team play. Hafiz needs to start thinking about what changes he is going to make for next season.

I was attempting to try and find a bright spot to highlight here, but I came up with nothing. Palermo has to flat out just get lucky against Lahore. They had one win this season and it was by 1 point.

It has been completed! 0-10 on the regular season! Now what would really be a plot twist is if Riyadh comes out hot and beats everyone in the playoffs! I am rooting for them!