Princeton’s Aririguzoh credits confidence for All-Ivy season
NEW HAVEN, CONN. >> One day in the not too distant future, Richmond Aririguzoh is going to be the tallest doctor you’ve ever met.
But before that, the 6-9 junior center for the Princeton men’s basketball team wants to play in the NCAA Tournament.
For that to happen, Aririguzoh and the third-seeded Tigers have to win two games this weekend at the John J. Lee Amphitheater, beginning with an Ivy League semifinal clash against second-seeded Yale on Saturday afternoon.
“We know it’s Yale at Yale even if they try and cover the Yale sign with the tarp,” Aririguzoh said on Friday following his team’s shoot-around. “They’re going to be confident in their home gym and have most of their fans here. For us, it’s a road game.”
If Princeton is to spring an upset and play for an Ivy title for the second time in three seasons, Aririguzoh needs to be a factor. In the two losses against the Bulldogs this season, Aririguzoh averaged 16 points and 6.5 rebounds.
No player in eighth-year coach Mitch Henderson’s career has made a bigger leap between seasons than Aririguzoh. The Ewing native and former standout at Trenton Catholic Academy went from 2.7 points and 1.7 rebounds as a sophomore to 11.6 points and 6.3 rebounds as a junior.
He earned second team All-Ivy honors earlier this week.
“I tell the staff all the time, don’t get used to this,” Henderson said. “It’s unbelievable. He’s a star of a human being, always has been. I outline every spring here all the things you need to work on with every guy I’ve ever coached. I’m usually pretty direct. And Richmond, just like he answered your question, he takes a long pause every time and he’s thinking, let me see if that’s right what you just said. He calculated that it was correct what I said and just went to work. Every game he gets better, every minute.”
Aririguzoh credited his improvement to a newfound confidence on the court.
“The biggest thing for me was doing simple things with a lot of reps and that gave me confidence,” he said. “I think the biggest change for me is my confidence level, which has allowed me to move forward with my skills, and then work on things like footwork, positions, all the little things.”
Aririguzoh’s aha moment wasn’t in any game, but during preseason practice before a ball was ever tipped.”
“We started going up and down and I was like, ‘wow,’” he said. “You have confidence in pick up, but in an organized thing like practices, some people tend to shy from trying new stuff, especially when you think you’ll be in an assigned role. For me, it was like those first couple weeks before any real game where I found myself prepared and I felt really confident in what I could do right now.”
His teammates noticed, too. They’re not shy about throwing him the ball into the post, something that wasn’t really an option last season as he averaged just 9.1 minutes per contest and the Tigers went 5-9 in the league, missing out on the Ivy Tournament.
“Even before I found my confidence, they were confident for me,” Aririguzoh said. “They were always like, ‘throw it in, throw it in,’ and expect me to go to work. That also very much helped with my confidence.
“It’s enormous, especially the older guys who have known me since I was a freshman. When they see you’ve definitely gotten better, and then it’s like use it, now go to work.”
Soon enough he’ll be Dr. Aririguzoh, but the focus is on basketball this weekend.
Princeton wouldn’t be here without him. “They’re a very experienced team with a lot of veterans on the team and we’re not as much,” Aririguzoh said. “We have to be really solid, really disciplined. Make sure that we’re close enough when there’s four minutes left because that’s when March happens.”