Muslim Basketball

And with that gentlemen we have a new 1st seed after a stellar 5 game win streak. Ahmad Saleh making strong case for GM of the year here with this squad’s performance led by none other than Mr. 20/20 himself Omar Mana. Supporting cast Moe Rayyan and Raied Saleh continue to contribute consistently with 18 and 17, respectively. This squad has always had things going for them in the right way and I think they’ll finish the season off 8-2.

To be fair they were without MVP candidate Big Moose, a disappointing let down for a a show off we’ve always wanted to see him play against ROTY candidate Mahdy. Nice to see Mufti Idris showing up again for the team on offense but we would’ve expected to see more from Shafic with his Co-star out. I think this squad is still a strong contender for #1 but I’m worried they may be too reliant on Big Moose.

 4/12 is not something we’re used to seeing from the ROTY candidate. But in all seriousness it seems like it was one of those games where most players are just having a bad game without anything falling for them. I’m not too worried about them, they’ll get back in their grove next week.

No Lil O, no Jehad, NO PROBLEMO! Another day for the professor with a 40 piece carrying his team on his back making sure the short staffed line up walks away with the W. It did take him 35 attempts to get there but 40% isn’t bad when the entire defense is focused on you.

"Biggz” is making sure it’s clear he’s still in the discussion for best “player coach” this season. Sure they were playing half of the Ali-squared duo but a win is a win. Amir C takes the leader rankings for most PPG after this game scoring 26 although not as efficiently as we’re used to seeing him perform. Great to see Mo Masri back in his grove scoring 24 of his own including 6 from deep on 50% longe range shooting. I would like to see one more player with double digits scoring for them to be a serious contender in the play offs with Biggz out.

And the drought continues for this squad with their 3rd loss in a row. It’s disappointing to see them go from 6-0 to 6-3 but it’s for sure that their offense isn’t the issue with them scoring 70+ but rather allowing 80 points is their issue defensively. Omar Hussein is a walking bucket Mashallah bringing in 26 and Amir Koyas showing us that not all ballers disappear after marriage with 21 of his own from ab efficient 75% shooting. We need to see more of Farhad offensively and defensively for this team to get back to the top of the rankings.

Is Muhanad Deeb the Mahrooz stopper we’ve been waiting for? Hard to tell because we were watching them play in the dark with Shahzaib’s LIGHTS OUT shooting going 8/12 from the deep. Oh and he would casually walk back with confidence having his back towards the basket as the ball smoothly swishes in between the net. We do need to see more from the rest of the team on offense with him being the sole double-digit contributor.

We’re all bummed that we didn’t get to see the Musa/Mahdy match up but ROTY did his part by showing up and scoring 22 for the team to get them this win. Props to them for keeping Shafic at just 12 points. We do want to see more from Affan for this team to be a serious threat offensively and expect at least 15 points from him to compliment Mahdy. I like that Ismail “Glendy” Mema and Ahmad Abid consistently bring in double digit scoring while the latter is an animal on the rebounds grabbing 16 boards

Now this is the Istanbul team we’ve been waiting to see. 80 points is impressive especially against a team like Lagos. All year long we hear everyone talking about how stacked and talented this team is on paper but they finally showed that on the court. Led by Aadil with killer 28 point 24 rebound game, the whole squad practically scored in double digits. Happy to finally see Splash getting back into double digit scoring as him and Jawad both bring in 16 points a piece. The floor spreads out so well when you have these two guys on the wings ready to light it up. Love seeing Hosam put his macho muscles to work grabbing boards and cleaning up with great second chance baskets.

I know its not 2014 but we’re finally getting some flashbacks of Fursan showing his brothers who’s the real Abbassi with his 21 piece. It’s unfortunate that both Joe’s didn’t have the best scoring night as they just couldn’t outscore the Sarajevo game in a nail biter game.

This team needs both Ali’s in order for them to be a serious match up. Ali S continues to deliver and ensure his name is in the discussion for ROTY. We need to see more of Farzad and Islam especially when they’re short their star player. 

They were without their main player and GM Zain but that’s still no excuse against the also short staffed Jeddah team. We need to see more scoring and efficiency from the Zubi brothers that we know are capable of 15+ each. Amir Hassan with 16 points and 18 rebounds is great to see but again this team needs to figure something out FAST or else they’ll have a very short playoffs run.