Muslim Basketball

After being down 2 at the end of the first half, the preseason favorites ran away with the W with a huge second half. Despite giving up 30 points to Shahzaib, Sana’a just looks like a well-oiled machine. Abdelhadi led Sana’a with 22 and 15, while getting stellar contributions from Kareem, Billal and Jehad. Anytime you can say Kareem Ahmad is your 3^rd option on offense, is an embarrassment of riches. I expect Abdelhadi to face a lot more double teams moving forward, forcing Billal and Kareem to take more of an initiative on the offense. They get an 0-2 Dhaka squad in Week 3, so the

Hassan Chaabane, Player of the Week. I am telling you now. 15 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals and 5 blocks? I’ve heard of Wendy’s 4 for 4 but the young buck decided to serve Kashgar something a bit more filling. They forced 16 turnovers, outrebounded them by 15 and oddly enough looked like the more experience bunch. Lil O continues to develop in front of our very eyes as he knocked down 4 from deep, while locking down Kashgar’s guards. Aadil also added 21 points of his own for good measure. Only reason I can’t put them any higher is due to SOS thus far, but next should be

Islamabad – It wasn’t as pretty as their week 1 performance but nonetheless they still came out on top. Zain looks like in peak MVP form with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Amir added 10 of his own and Splash did all the little things that is not going to show up in the box score. Don’t expect Idris and Splash to go 2-10 from 3 every week, because you’ll be down 18 before you know it. Next up is a week 3 dance with Kabul.

They played one heck of a first half and kind of fell apart in the second. Missing Moe Rayyan definitely hurt as they could have thrown different matchups at Sana’a but they just looked out of sync. Shahzaib with a game high 30 points but it took 30 shots. After garnering some MVP consideration, Omar Singer had a quiet performance as did Sal Rahin. Their shooting and playmaking are among the league’s best and that alone will win them games. Next up is the undefeated Jerusalem squad. 

Overall not the greatest performance from their guards, but it got the job done. Their star backcourt combined for 35 points on 12 of 29 shooting from the field and each hit a pair of 3s. It was nice to see them get contributions from Ali Omari and Elias. With 4 consistent contributors and their guard play ranking among the league’s best, Kabul is a sleeper team to watch out for.

Unfortunately Muj is shutting it down for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. One player can’t replace Muj but adding his brother to the roster will certainly help. Yaqob with another strong performance of 22 and 10 but they just came up short. They finish games strong, but they need to figure out a way to keep it close from the jump.

Omar Mana did not waste any time getting reacquainted with the backboard as he grabbed 21 boards to go along with his 12 points. Ed led the team with 15 but has to get more out of Ameer Koyas. Only attempting 7.5 shots through two games isn’t going to help this team that’s already lacking scoring. Towfeek has to be more efficient and be the orchestrator of the offense. Expect him to get a heavy dose of Billal and Kareem next week. 

       Another star is out. Losing Anas Zubi for the remainder of the season will hurt them, but 16 turnovers and 6 assists as a team? A week after lighting the league on fire, Amir Hassan came back down to earth. Malik struggled to get anything going without his running mate in action and their bigs got outplayed. Raza went stretches without even sniffing the basketball and that should never be the case. Depending on who they decide to bring on board to replace Anas, they will have to rely on Raza, Malik