Dueling presses: Huron basketball faces the program its defense was modeled after
Expect plenty of trapping defense -- like what Huron's Mike Lewis, left, and Kyle Baker did to Lincoln's DeMarkus Coleman in February -- when the River Rats play North Farmington in Monday's Class A regional semifinal at Hartland High School. Huron coach Waleed Samaha learned his team's trapping full-court press from North Farmington coach Tom Negoshian. (AnnArbor.com file photo)
Immediately afterward, Samaha approached the veteran coach.
“Either I’m going to come work for you, or you’re going to teach me that press,” Samaha told him.
The rest is history. After a year of studying its intricacies, Samaha implemented Negoshian’s constant full-court, trapping system in his own program prior to last season.
The River Rats have won 39 of 46 games since and, on Friday, won their second straight district title.
That 66-42 win over Dexter earned the student a chance to show the teacher his progress. Huron’s regional semifinal opponent is Negoshian’s North Farmington team.
Negoshian developed the press from a combination of college systems, tweaking it over the past 15 years to its current form. But he’s hardly been secretive about it.
After Samaha approached him with his request to learn it, Negoshian invited the Huron coaching staff to practice and sat down to break down film with them. Samaha remains in frequent contact with the man he now calls an idol - on and off the court.
Huron coach Waleed Samaha
“It’ll be bittersweet, win or lose. I’m going to cry either way,” Samaha says. “We have a lot of genuine love and respect for North Farmington.”
Huron also knows it’ll be in for a grueling night when the teams meet at 6 p.m. Monday at Hartland High School. Both teams will exert constant pressure for 32 minutes.
But Samaha isn’t sure if that’s going to result in a low-scoring game, or if the teams will be familiar enough with what they’re facing that it will end up high-scoring.
One thing is certain.
“Both teams are going to play incredibly hard,” Samaha said. “If you haven’t seen us play, you should get there. If you haven’t seen them play, you should get there. But you should definitely be there to see these teams play each other.”
Rich Rezler covers high school sports for AnnArbor.com. Contact him at 734-623-2553 or richrezler@annarbor.com.