Muslim Basketball

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?

Playing with 5 is tough, but they almost gave Dhaka a run for their money. They really could have used some production from Mo Popal. Losses are losses, but this loss can be taken as a moral victory. If Aly and Osama play like that in the playoffs along with the Popals, they can definitely upset someone in the playoffs.

The Popals are back at it. They combined to score 52 points, and demolished Riyadh by 22 points. Although they have found themselves on the bottom half of the spectrum this season in the standings, this is a team that can easily get hot and upset a top tier team. Regardless of their record, AMP is still one of the best players MB has ever seen, and one can argue that he absolutely deserves to be on the much talked about “MB Mt. Rushmore.”

I know we talk about player of the week contenders, but AMP isn’t a contender this week. It is very clear he is the player of the week. Abdul shot 18-26 from the field, scoring 44 points, 6 boards and 4 assists. That is one of the best 40 point games I have seen in a while. Most importantly, they came out with the W. As long as AMP shows up they should beat Riyadh next game and get back to .500.

AMP just wasn’t able to seal the deal. He couldn’t hit from deep, and it ended up hurting them in the end. I have never seen a team ranked so high preseason get down this low in the middle of the season.

Lost by 41. I would normally talk about how AMP was not present, but Mo wasn’t present either, so they cancel each other out. Kabul’s other players are just that much better than Cairo’s other players. They also had Aly foul out of the game and forced to play with 4. Attendance kills.

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. 

Big drop. I think AMP is missing Yaqob and Bilal more than Aytac is missing Aymen. You can never rule a team with one of the most prolific scorers MB has ever seen out, but the way they are trending it is not looking good.

Playing with 5, Cairo came up short against an underrated Sana’a team. Luis filled up the box score, but was unable to get his shot down, shooting 3-17 from the floor. It looks as if he needs to stay down low as opposed to playing on the outside. Oh yeah, AMP had 35.

AMP with an AMP-like performance, putting up 27-10-3. Now he has another Popal to work with too. If Bilal and Yaqob have good seasons, this team won’t lose many games, if any.

AMP did his normal switch to the Cairo name, and brought basically the entire Palermo team with him. They were a top dog last season, and I don’t see this season being any different.