TEHRAN (FIBA Asia Challenge 2016) - There is hardly anyone who matters as much to Jordan basketball as Sam Daghlas. The US-raised guard had a wonderful career as a professional and as a mainstay for the national team. He has played in the NBA Summer League, in his native Jordan, in China and in the Philippines, but his best moments were when always he was wearing the Al Nashama kit.

Perhaps the most stellar highlight of his international career was when he led Jordan to a Cinderella second place finish in the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, China. He was remembered for the passionate speech he gave to the Jordanian squad at the halftime break of their Quarter-Finals match against top-seeded Iran. Jordan was down by just one point then. They were sticking close to a team that had been unbeaten in their first six games and that had won by an average of 46 points.

They weren’t supposed to deal Iran a defeat. It wasn’t in the stars, and it certainly wasn’t in the script.

But it happened, and Daghlas was instrumental in carrying the team to the momentous triumph.

By game’s end, Daghlas tallied 23 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals, leading Jordan to an 88-84 win that knocked the shell-shocked Iranians out of contention.

Now, on the eve of another all-important Quarter-Finals game, Daghlas, once again, will be thrust into the spotlight. Unlike before, however, he won’t hold the basketball and orchestrate the offense. He won’t make the big shot or the big defensive play.

This time, Daghlas is on the bench as Jordan’s head coach, barking out orders with the same passion he showed five years ago.

Jordan enter the Quarter-Finals as the highest-scoring team in the entire competition. Al Nashama have averaged nearly 103 points per game — 14 more than Iran, which is at the second spot in the scoring ladder. It is something Daghlas is proud of, and he sees it as a sign that the team’s members have been able to adjust well to each one’s playing style.

“Once again we proved to be a high scoring team,” Daghlas says. “I believe we are the team with the highest scoring average in this championship. We improved game by game and the players got accustomed more to each other.”

More than pure scoring, though, Jordan have made a statement by winning their last four games by an average of 28.5 points. They have veritably outclassed the competition. Jordan ended group play as the second seed in Group E and will face fancied Japan in the knockout round. It’s a dangerous proposition, of course, since Japan have been on a tear these past couple of years, and they have players who’ve played at the world level. Despite that, Daghlas believes his team should have a strong chance as long as they don’t look too far ahead.

“Yes, we have made a statement here, but I don’t want the players to feel the pressure,” Daghlas remarks. “We’re not think about the Final right now because what’s important for us is the Quarter-Finals.”

Eying things to improve ahead of their crucial tiff with the Japanese, Daghlas doesn’t focus on the Xs and Os too much. He is a players’ coach — a motivator of the highest order. He has proven to be a born leader, and he has shown it countless times on the floor. Now he is called to show that as the voice of Jordan’s unwavering spirit on the sidelines.

According to Daghlas, there are only two things he wants to see in Jordan’s players on tomorrow’s field of battle.

“I want more composure and leadership from the players,” he says.

He knows these are what gave Jordan so much glory before, and he knows these are what they need to climb that mountain again.

FIBA