When I was playing basketball I was taught the best way to bounce back from playing poorly was to be aggressive and take the ball inside. Haidar must have been taught the same thing because he came out of the gate playing aggressive, leading Michigan Tech to an early lead that they never relinquished. He scored 11 of his teams 33 first half points, and continued on to score another 11 points in the second half.

Overall this was one of Haidar's best performances of the season. Along with the 22 points he added a team-high 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals. His overall efficiency rating was an awesome 31! Hopefully this is the kind of performance we will see from here on out.

Perhaps this was not the best game to start to follow Ali Haidars season closely . . .

Haidar struggled in the game, ending with totals of 2 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block in 22 minutes played. Unfortunately he also had 3 personal fouls and 4 turnovers. On the surface this just looks like a terrible outing. But there is an explanation. For most of the time he was in the game Haidar was tasked with guarding Marcus Jackson, and athletic 6'6' forward who is St. Joseph's second leading scorer. As a sophomore guarding a senior, these are the kind of match-ups that will look ugly now, but pay big dividends in the future.

I wish I had clips or photos, but I listened to this game on the radio. Next game is Thursday, January 6th at 5:30 pm Eastern. Hopefully he will have a better outing against

For the past few weeks I have been trying to decide if I should follow anymore players this year,and if I did who I should follow. Seeing the passion of the Lebanese fans, especially on the interbasket forum peaked my interest in basketball in Lebanon. While there were a few potential players to follow in the US, I found Ali Haidar to be by far the most intriguing. While the game I watched on December 19th was not his best performance, it confirmed to me that he has a ton of potential. 6'7" big men who can move are rare, especially in the Asian basketball world.

Born in Lebanon, but raised in Canada, Haidar did not begin playing organized basketball until 2006. That, combined with the fact that he was in Canada did not make him a big time recruit out of high school. He currently plays at Michigan Tech, a Division II school, that competes against mostly Midwest schools. The level of play is still strong, as the teams are still made up mostly of scholarship players.

As the team enters the second half of the season, Haidar is the second highest scorer on the team. He has increased his output across all statistical areas this year. Perhaps most impressive is that he is shooting over 60% from the field. This is an unbelievable percentage, especially for a player who on occasion will step behind the 3-point line.

His next game will be played on December 30th, 6pm Eastern time. Unfortunately there is no video feed, but there is audio available on the 'Schedule' page of the Michigan Tech Basketball site. In the future I will post and tweet game info the day before the game. My twitter name is 'asiabballupdate' in case you want to get the info that way.