Muslim Basketball

Beating a strong Dhaka team absolutely means they solidify their number 1 spot. At this point, only a loss can move them down in the rankings. They have a tough schedule, so let’s see if one of the next 3 teams can take them down.

Pete Brown ladies and gentlemen. As long as Pete shows up, this team will be very hard to beat. 23 and 17 without an ounce of effort.

You have to be able to field a team to play. Sucks for Granada that we didn’t get to see the potential awesome matchup. Technically they didn’t lose, so it is hard to move them down too much as if they aren’t one of the best teams in MB. Nobody wants to play Kabul.

Aymen and team did exactly what they are supposed to do when you have these lopsided matchups on the schedule. They won by 30+. 33 to be exact. That is how you get your point differential up and move up in the standings. They were super-efficient from the field, with the entire team shooting a combined 52.9%. It starts and ends with Aymen. Can he bring this team to the promise land?

Terrible coaching. You cannot have players not wear their jerseys, especially when you are playing a top team like Mombasa. Then I was told one Ozoria brother was wearing the other Ozoria brother’s jersey. Huh? They could have switched jerseys and only been penalized 3 points instead of 6. Tex needs to get his team together. Oh and in case anyone forgot, Pat can still score at will. 

Tough matchup against Amman. I think the biggest difference maker this game came at the FT line. Dhaka attempted only 2 FTs, while Amman attempted 20! That is a HUGE difference. Selfishly, Dhaka can blame the refs, or they can do what they have always done every other season. They can bounce back and destroy whoever they play next. Sorry in advance, Suba.

It is not often you see 5 players in double digits. This win was the definition of team ball. Shot attempts distributed evenly, and everyone showing they can ball. Looks like Zain was shooting for the triple double, ending with 12 points, 17 boards, 8 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. MBR going through the roof! He is definitely a player of the week candidate.

No game. No movement. Free win.

I hate for this write up on Tripoli to always be about Muj, but when he shows up, they are a completely different team. They need Muj and Jean to be at every game to have a shot at a repeat championship.

Other than Elfayoumi, nobody could find their shot. The rest of the team shot an underwhelming total of 11-53, which equals 20.7% from the field. Yikes. They can’t beat the reigning champs shooting like that. Call it good defense, call it bad shooting; I just call it an L. Attendance has been killing Bukhara this season. I know it is summertime, but without a team, it is hard to win games.

Beating Riyadh by 12 isn’t what I wanted to see from Jakarta. Like I always say, a win is a win, but these games you have to get your score differential up. Kenny Ziem, welcome to Jakarta. He finally had his coming out party dropping 28 on 10-14 shooting. Netti didn’t have his normal performance, and next week against Bukhara, they are going to need participation from all of their scorers. That means Kenny, Netti, Ed, and Joe all need to do what they do best.

42. Wow. Anas putting the team on his back with Tehran missing Mo Amin, and then Ali hurting his ankle. Even with the extremely impressive performance, a 1 point victory against Kashgar is not what it takes to move up the power rankings.

This team is still a sleeper. They have only 1 loss and it was to a top tier Kabul squad. Next week they go up against another 3-1 sleeper team in Sana’a.

Another underrated team waiting for a challenge. Good thing the next 3 games they play Timbuktu, Sarajevo, and Dhaka. If they win 2 out of the 3 games, they are an official contender in my book.

Beat up on a lowly Lagos team who played with 4 guys for the first 10 minutes. From the looks of the box score, they let their heavy hitters take a seat during this game. They didn’t need them. They have an even easier matchup next week against Riyadh. The challenge will be the week after against Mombasa.

Omar got to battle Mohamed down low all game for the boards. That has to get tiring, but he still managed to grab 16. This was a big win for Lahore. They didn’t want to see themselves end up in the dungeon of the power rankings. Bilal was very efficient, but young man Ahmad has got to get more efficient from behind the arc if he wants to keep chucking them up. He is shooting 5-31 from 3 in the last 3 games. That is 16.1%.

By now, everybody knows who Mohamed Bendary is. Even scoring 22 points on 11-13 shooting and grabbing 15 boards, Medina still couldn’t close out against Lahore. Mohamed’s normal partner in crime, Jawad, just wasn’t able to knock it down from 3 shooting 2-12 from behind the arc.

Cairo managed to beat Delhi despite having less team rebounds and assists. AMP did AMP-like things, scoring 30 on 13-20 shooting. This team has severely underperformed, but maybe this was the win they needed to get a streak going. 

At least Tac had some help this game, but even with Zach contributing, they couldn’t get the W against Timbuktu. I don’t think Suba has ever been this low on the rankings. Tac would be a perennial all-star in MB if we consistently had an all-star game, but just like Booker, that doesn’t automatically convert to his team being successful. He needs to start thinking about what he is going to do next season sooner than later.

Nobody could get it going. They shot 24.5% from the field, and 17.2% from 3. They have a good squad, but I don’t see them beating any top tier teams. That was proven when they got blown out by Sarajevo by 33.

They scored 12 points in the first half. Yikes. 48 points in the second half nearly brought them back, but when you start off that slow, you really are shooting yourself in the foot. Kudos to them for making the score respectable and not giving up.

Losing a game like this has to sting. I don’t know how this team always finds the shots to go around, but it looks like they always get everyone involved. Unfortunately, that strategy doesn’t always convert to wins. They just couldn’t find the answer to stopping Anas.

Amir, 1. Baghdad, 0. Amir came out victorious in the “revenge game.” He received some much needed help from Lawrence and Deep. They are finally in the win column, and they have some very winnable games coming up. Let’s see if they can dig their way out of the lower end of the rankings.

Timmy and Dondre really needed Moe’s help this game. Moe has got to be more consistent with his shooting if this team wants any shot at upsetting someone in the playoffs.

It’s tough for Lagos to win with 5 guys, and they were forced to play with 4 until Michael showed up. Kyseem and Hosam both have to be present for this team to have a shot at winning.

Another day, another loss. Not sure what this team needs. Actually I am sure what they need. A win.

This was their shot to win. Kenny played spectacular scoring 28 on 11-16 shooting. Ahmad contributed as well, putting up 25-5-10. They have a shot against Fez. That is their only hope to avoid a possible winless season.

No hope.