Princeton’s journey becomes face of March Madness’ COVID era

Princetonforward Tosan Evbuomwan spent his first three college seasonsenduring one disappointment after another.

Reaching theNCAA Tournament and advancing to the Sweet 16 made it allworthwhile.

After the2020 Ivy League Tournament was canceled, after the entire 2020-21season was canceled, after losing by two points in the conference’s2022 tourney title game and after watching three friends transferjust to keep playing in 2022-23, this resilient 6-foot-8 Brit hastaken the Tigers on their deepest NCAA Tournament run since 1967and has emerged as survivor of one of college basketball’sstrangest journeys.

“I think itdid start with that COVID year,” Evbuomwan said. ”There was atogetherness with that group. One of my favorite things about thattime was the Zooms with one another, the Face Times, just talkingabout what we wanted the next season. We wanted achampionship.”

Now,the Ivy League tourney champions arethe talk of the nationand an illustration of the impacttwo pivotal COVID years have had on the college basketballworld.

Nobodyoutside the Princeton locker room expected this run — especiallywhen three of last year’s top five scorers left to take advantageof the NCAA’s extra season. League rules allowed them only to usethat season at a non-conference school.

But theseTigers pride themselves on perseverance. So instead of allowing theobstacles to derail their dreams or steal their spirit, they dugin, stuck around, forged a bond and finished the job.

“We missedout on a whole year. That hurt, watching essentially every otherteam in the country play,” Princeton guard Matt Allocco said. “ButI think it actually helped us in the long run. We were able to gettogether in the spring and practice, be with each other, buildthose relationships. It ended up being a great experience.”

Not everyoneremembers the COVID years fondly.

San DiegoState and Dayton saw their 2020 title hopes dashed by the NCAA’sannouncement. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo thought he had a FinalFour team, too.

NorthernKentucky coach Darrin Horn’s long-awaited return to March Madnesswas extended by three more years, prompting him to acknowledge twoweeks ago that winning the 2020 Horizon League crown almost seemedlike it never happened.

There’s noway to replace what was lost —even for this year’s 16 regionalsemifinalists.

Just ask SanDiego State coach Brian Dutcher, whose team faces top-seededAlabama on Friday in the Louisville Regional. The Aztecs weresupposed to be a top-two seed three years ago.

“As I saidall those years ago, as good as Malachi Flynn and KJ Feagin andYanni Wetzell were, they never played in the NCAA Tournament onetime in their careers. That’s unbelievable,” Dutcher said.“Sometimes we take for granted just going and losing in the firstround. Just to have a chance to play would have meant the world tothose guys so I feel bad for that, that they never got a taste ofMarch Madness.”

Meanwhile, atCreighton, it was a different scenario.

In 2021, thetourney provided the Bluejays with a bittersweet memory:Celebrating their first Sweet 16 appearance since 1974 inside thelonely Indianapolis “bubble.”

Sowhensixth-seeded Creighton knocked offthird-seeded Baylor 85-76 last weekendto return to theSweet 16, something suddenly felt far more satisfying aboutFriday’s matchup against 15th-seeded Princeton in Louisville.

“We had a lotof fans there to celebrate at the end of the game with us (inDenver) and then you go back to the hotel with family and friendsand have a chance to celebrate rather than go back to your room andeat another piece of rubber chicken out of a Styrofoam box, whichis what we did in Indianapolis,” Creighton coach Greg McDermottsaid. “To get to the Sweet 16 is a difficult thing to do, it wasjust a little more fun to celebrate that particular night.”

What about2021 national champion Baylor? Of course, the Bears had nocomplaints.

Kansas Statecoach Jerome Tang was an assistant on that title team and has usedthe lessons from that run as the model for his third-seededWildcats, who take on Izzo’s seventh-seeded Spartans on Thursday atMadison Square Garden.

Tang believes the similarities inroster compositionwill help Kansas State thisweekend.

“We spent 30days in the ‘bubble,’ right? And if you don’t like each other,nobody wants to spend that amount of time together,” Tang said.“That team, we really liked each other. We loved being together. Imean, it was fun to be around them. I feel the same way aroundthese guys. We could be in a bubble for 30 days and we’ll be justfine. We’re going to have a great time.”

But nobodywill have more fun than Princeton.

Just twoyears after watching everyone else’s games, the Tigers need twowins to end a 48-year Final Four drought, two wins to become thefirst Ivy League team in the national semifinals since Penn in 1979and two wins to cement their status as one of the greatest and mostcompelling advance-and-survive stories in tourney history.

And it mightnot have happened without Princeton’s COVID experience.

“Having towatch those games on TV, the tournament, hurt. I think looking backon it, it fueled us for the next year,” Princeton guard RyanLangborg said. “I think this year, this Sweet 16 run so far, it’smore than making up for it.”