How British big man Tosan Evbuomwan left soccer and helped lead Princeton to the Sweet 16

Tosan Evbuomwan was likely one of the few kids in Newcastle, England, who grew up with a basketball hoop in his yard – though, at least for a while, it didn't get much use.

"It was rivaled by the soccer net, right beside it on the grass," he said.

Evbuomwan got the hoop – and an early understanding of basketball – from his father, Isaac, who had played the sport in his native Nigeria. But like most British kids, he much preferred soccer or rugby. He didn't play organized basketball until he was 14. And he didn't play high school basketball until he and some friends petitioned the school to create a team, enlisting a rugby coach to oversee practices and drive them to games.

It seemed improbable that, just a few years later, Evbuomwan would be playing Division I basketball in the United States, let alone as a key player on a team in the Sweet 16.

Yet as No. 15 seed Princeton prepares to face No. 6 seed Creighton in Louisville on Friday night, that's precisely where he is – the unlikely star at the heart of an unlikely men's NCAA Tournament run.

"Just fairy tale," said Ian MacLeod, one of his former youth coaches in England.

Evbuomwan (pronounced Uh-WOAH-MA) has blossomed in a sort of point-forward role for Princeton, the linchpin around which everything operates.

With his father cheering from the stands, Evbuomwan led the Tigers with 15 points in their upset of No. 2 seed Arizona, then pitched in nine points, nine rebounds and five assists in a win over No. 7 seed Missouri. The senior forward is just the sixth player in Princeton history to record 1,000 points and 300 assists.

"Tosan's passing, you won't see that again at Princeton for 50 years," Tigers coach Mitch Henderson told reporters last weekend, while likening his skill as a passer to "a brilliant, blinding light from heaven."

Leaving soccer, finding basketball

MacLeod attributes part of that passing acumen to Evbuomwan's experience playing other sports as a child. Before joining a local basketball club, the Newcastle Eagles, he had played soccer, rugby and cricket competitively, in addition to running track.

"When he arrived, he had good balance, he had good footwork, he had good spatial awareness," said MacLeod, who coached Evbuomwan on the Eagles before moving into his current role as the club's development manager.

"It doesn't matter what game it is. … Creating space and using space, passing angles – all those things are similar."

Evbuomwan said he always had a relatively easy time picking up new sports as a kid, in part because he played so many of them. But soccer was where he thrived. He even joined the youth academy of Newcastle United F.C., a top-flight English team, before deciding to leave at age 11.

"I think it just got too serious a little bit too fast for me, because of the level I was playing at," he explained. "And I kind of lost the enjoyment factor a little bit."

Evbuomwan soon turned his attention to basketball, in large part because of his dad, who raised Tosan and his brother, Toju, as a single father after their mother Michelle died of breast cancer in 2012. (Tosan wears pink shoes on the court in her honor.)

It helped, though, that severaal of Evbuomwan's friends also started playing the sport at the same time. They played in the park all summer, then on existing hoops for a different sport, netball, when they returned to school the next year. ("They’re 10 feet also, but there’s no backboard, and they’re a little smaller," he explained.)

'That's him'

Before long, Evbuomwan and his friends had begun pushing school administrators to start a basketball team. They found an ally in teacher Michael Davidson and were in business shortly thereafter – with a rugby coach, whom Evbuomwan described as more of an "overseer," leading the team.

"He was driving the minibus and stuff to games, but we kind of coached ourselves a lot," he said.

The high school team actually grew to become fairly competitive against other schools in the area, Evbuomwan said. But he found more structure with the Eagles, who fielded youth teams in a variety of age groups in addition to a top pro team in the British Basketball League.

By 16, Evbuomwan was competing with the Eagles' under-18 team. And by 17, he was representing Great Britain in the under-18 FIBA European Championships.

"I think what you see in his play is his personality – composed, poised, patient, hard-working," MacLeod said. "That’s him. That’s not just how he plays the game."

Evbuomwan figures he was around 16 when he started to think he could go somewhere with basketball, and MacLeod asked if he had any interest trying to play in college and study in the U.S. Together, MacLeod said they came up with a list of schools to contact – focusing on Division I schools with top-20 economics programs, because that's what Evbuomwan wanted to study.

MacLeod said Dartmouth and Stanford were among those that offered to stay in touch, but Princeton's interest was immediate – and after a visit to campus, "he was just sold."

Practicing with pros

Evbuomwan's growth on the court has been shaped by his early playing experiences in Great Britain, and a more recent, rare practice opportunity.

When the Ivy League canceled its 2020-21 season due the COVID-19 pandemic, Evbuomwan stayed in Newcastle and practiced for about four months with the Eagles' pro team, then coached by MacLeod. He was usually tasked with guarding Justin Gordon, a fifth-year pro who had played collegiately at Wofford.

"He’s the most athletic guy we’ve had in the league for a long time," MacLeod said. "So that was what (Evbuomwan) was exposed to on a daily basis."

Evbuomwan said he also asked the NCAA about possibly playing in games for the Eagles, foregoing a salary to maintain his eligibility.

"Obviously that didn’t happen," he said. "But I was playing at a really high level, I was competing with those guys, and that gave me a lot of confidence going back into Princeton."

That confidence helped Evbuomwan emerge as the Ivy League's player of the year last season – and it's the same mindset that has fueled him, and his team, in the NCAA Tournament so far. He said everyone views the Tigers' run to the Sweet 16 as an upset – but the Tigers do not.

"It’s not by any means to take what we’ve done lightly or to say it’s been easy. We’ve had to play special, and we’re playing our best basketball," he said. "But we haven’t felt out of our depth. We’ve really competed with these guys, and we hope to keep going."

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sweet 16 run by Princeton powered by British big man Tosan Evbuomwan