Muslim Basketball

No Wajdi, no problem…yet again! Jay Wiggins is here to save the day, and by the looks of it, whether it’s Jay, Wajdi, or anyone else, that player is just the cherry on top to what is already a great squad. It’s becoming a regular occurrence to see Omar Qasem, Omar Hussein, and Ameer all put up double-digit points on relatively efficient shooting. Now add the overall size they present with Captain Salman among them as well, so this team is probably the most well-rounded in the league with some great depth. They were predicted to be upset, but went out and made a statement, making quick work of a very talented Tehran ral

I can assure you all Ramzy has no regrets about his draft, and Joe Capone can only be described as an absolute phenom; 10-14 from the field, 5-6 from beyond, and this isn’t something uncommon. We do expect more from the likes of Jojo and Fursan moving forward, but this game was done almost 10 minutes in, so Capone himself was able to suffice. They remain undefeated and have beaten some good teams until this point, but they face two of the best in the next couple of weeks. Not that they haven’t proven themselves already, but through their next two games&

Uncharacteristic performance from former MVP Biggz Abbassi, but very characteristic from GM Billal picking up fan favorite, triple XL Amir C who very characteristically put all the scoring on his back and kept Medina in it to the end. Medina did enough defensively limiting ROTY frontrunner Mahrooz, and forcing an inefficient night from Omar Singer. More than anything though, Medina’s tendency to will themselves to fight got them this W, and will be the reason for many more. Biggz lived up to the name, coming up big in the clutch, scoring the tying bucket to get Medina into OT, and the final bucket of the game to put Kabul away. I <

Tough loss in OT, but it’s not one they should be too down on. Big Moose came up big putting up 21-20 on 50% as expected, and Shafic was right there with him putting up 15 on 5-9 and a huge go-ahead at the end of the game. Idris put up a dud, which is very very uncharacteristic of a top 5 shooter, but other pieces on the team stepped up, namely Zubair P and Ali O, which goes to show that this team has some serious depth. A well-fought game and their loss won’t blind the rest of the league to the threat they present.

This game was a finger’s length away from being theirs, and this was the first time Singer and Mahrooz share the court. It’s also great to see that Elias has continued to contribute. I think this team will continue atop the standings, and the more time they have together, the more I expect Singer to fill in his pg role and get others involved. If it weren’t for one or two missed shots and defensive lapses, this game could’ve easily been theirs.

Are you kidding me Mana, 31 and 21?!?!?! Mana is easily the early MVP frontrunner, single-handedly willing his team to blow teams out. It is a little concerning that it’s basically been him alone, but we have still yet to see Raza finally make an appearance. Their schedule thus far has been fairly light, but the fact of the matter is Mana is just dominating, Raza hasn’t shown, Moe Rayyan hasn’t found his rhythm (which he definitely will), and Ahmad and Raied are great compliments to those aforementioned. Nonetheless, I couldn’t put this team any lower than 6 the way Mana’s been playing, but <span s

Something had to have been in that Abbassi water going into this week. Omar lil o with 23 big ones and of course, the biggest one of all to upset a great Riyadh team in shocking fashion. I’ve made it clear this team wasn’t deserving of what was an 0-2 record, and when it started to feel like things were lost, they found each other and rallied in the clutch. And it really doesn’t get more clutch than Jeddah’s top guys all showing up. Don’t let reigning MVP Hassan’s triple-double go over your head, Jehad played phenomenal second-half defense and scored two back-to-back clutch ones, and Hamzeh put up 10 o

As expected, Ali Hassan showed up and showed out, but that’s all there was to it. Ali Suiafan did contribute here and there, but there needed to be more from teammates Muhanad Deeb and Islam Abbassi. This team has the size, the playmaking, and the scoring to fight against the very best, but something had to have been telling about their second-half defense. Tehran has had a rough stretch playing two phenomenal teams back-to-back, so I do believe they will be back with something to prove. This team will certainly see better days, don’t sleep on them.

Riddled with absences, yet they still come out with the win. I think this team may have found something with their new asset in Jawad, who seemingly meshed instantaneously with this team's engine. Together they had 20 and 23, respectively, and on top of that, rookie Medo Zubi and Muhannad Darwish had their own things to say in this one. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that this team has that dog; after being down by  8 in the first half, they got together and exceeded all expectations to move ahead to get their first win. Impressive as they were, they can be even better when we finally see Ahmad Splash and Malik Zubi </

Honestly, not much to say here. They were missing 5 of their guys, picked up 2 guests, and played with 5. Ahmad and Shahzaib did combine for 35, but without their guys alongside them, it’s tough to gauge how this team will pan out, but they have proven in previous weeks that they have what it takes.

The defensive issues continue for the struggling Kashgar, and it helps even less when some of their top guys shoot inefficiently. There’s been a game where Ismael did his thing, one where Mahdy did his thing, and now one where Mo Masri does his thing; they’ve just been unable to bring it all together. Even beyond them three, they certainly have very capable players. GM Hasnan is going to have to do some soul-searching for his team and have them find their roles and identities, and if and when that happens, they’ll compete.

Career game for the young Omar Sehwail, scoring a career-high 20 points on 7-9 shooting, and I do want to say he carried his team to stay in it, but the rest of the team actually did pretty well averaging a combined 9 points in this one on mostly efficient shooting. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but despite the team effort, the box score says Zain was the difference here, and unusually in the negative sense. Their struggles continue as they still need some shooting threats, I’m sure GM Zain will look to acquire that skillset over the next week if he’s looking to contend this season.