Richmond Aririguzoh is a world traveler with lofty goals.

He was born in Italy to Nigerian parents.

After the family moved to Trenton when Aririguzoh was nearly 12, they continued to make home-cooked Italian meals several times a week — spaghetti alla carbonara, spaghetti con ragù, lasagna and risotto are the favorites.

Now in his senior season on the Princeton men’s basketball team, the 6-foot-9 center wants to keep traveling in March: during the NCAA Tournament.

“And he’ll take us there,” Princeton coach Mitch Henderson told NJ Advance Media by phone. “He’s one of those rare kids who has the ability to influence an entire program.”

Aririguzoh is a pre-med student who wears size 18 shoes. He’s averaging 13.4 points and 8.2 rebounds for the Tigers (10-9, 5-1 Ivy League), who are tied with Yale atop the Ivies despite starting the season 0-5 and 1-7 in the non-conference. The Bulldogs (17-5, 5-1) visit Jadwin Gym on Friday night to battle for first place in the league.

“It’s definitely huge [for them] to come to our place,” said Aririguzoh, 21. “They just had a tough weekend themselves, lost a close one to Harvard, so they’re definitely super-motivated to get us at our place.”

Aririguzoh has a handful of home games left in his Princeton career, and he wants to make the most of them.

He could hardly have imagined he’d be starring in the Ivy League when he first arrived in the United States from the small town of Pontelongo, Italy, where his parents, Celestine Aririguzoh and Chioma Ugorji, worked and lived for 15 years.

He arrived on Sept. 7, 2010, two days before his 12th birthday and the family — including his older brother Franklin and younger sister Amy — settled with the family’s maternal grandmother, Anastasia Ugorji, in Trenton.

“It was challenging, but I had incredible support around me from my parents and the teachers at my school,” he said. “Everybody was rooting for me.”

Aririguzoh had played some organized basketball in Italy — along with playing soccer and running track — but really began to get into hoops while attending middle school at Incarnation Saint James in Ewing Township.

It was there that he met current Seton Hall star Myles Powell, who was one year older. Powell and Aririguzoh became teammates during the younger player’s sophomore year at Trenton Catholic. Powell had transferred from Medford Tech for his junior season. By then, Aririguzoh had undergone a growth spurt and was 6-foot-6.

“When I met Myles, he was always very talented, a dead-eye shooter,” he said.

He added that Powell was a little chubby back then.

“He wasn’t the hardest worker in the physical sense," he said. "He was always working on his skill, but sometimes people neglect to tell you that you should also work on your conditioning. I think he discovered that on his way to Seton Hall, and now he’s like addicted to being in shape.

“When he was at Trenton Catholic and when I played with him, he was always super supportive as a friend and a teammate for my growth and everybody around him.”

Aririguzoh played AAU ball with WE-R1, a Delaware-based club on the Under Armour circuit. When he was with the 15U WE-R1 team, Henderson and Princeton assistant Brett MacConnell noticed him in a layup line at an event in Philadelphia.

“We were the only ones watching him,” Henderson said. “Everything was there [with his game], it just wasn’t there then. His feet were size 18 then, it just wasn’t there yet.”

Henderson noticed that Aririguzoh was an “extraordinary listener” who steadily improved over time.

“I saw him play [at Trenton Catholic], he was terrific,” Henderson said. “He just wasn’t a highly recruited kid. Myles was way more polished at the time.”

Aririguzoh also ran track at Trenton Catholic, qualifying for the New Jersey Meet of Champions in the 400 intermediate hurdles and 110 high hurdles.

“It helped my development as far as coordination,” he said. “Especially when I hit that growth spurt, it helped me control my limbs.”

Franklin Aririguzoh, Richmond’s older brother, ran track at Princeton and graduated in 2019. Richmond ultimately selected Princeton over several other Ivy League schools that he declined to name.

“I just chose Princeton because it was voted the No. 1 university in the country,” he said.

His younger sister Amy is committed to Princeton for next year and will run track, meaning the family will have had three children attend the school.

During his freshman season in 2016-17, the Tigers went unbeaten in the Ivy League and finished 14-0. The team won the inaugural Ivy League Tournament by topping Yale in the title game at the Palestra. That gave them the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Aririguzoh didn’t play much on that team and said his sophomore season was also frustrating. He averaged just 2.7 points and 1.7 rebounds.

“I kind of found out how much I didn’t know and how completely different college basketball is and what it takes to sustain a high performance at a continued level,” he said.

As a junior, he averaged 12.1 points and 6.4 rebounds.

Now he’s become a monster as a senior. With the Tigers down one against Harvard on Feb. 1, he hit two foul shots to ensure the 70-69 win. He had done the same in a win over Arizona State as a junior.

He’s able to balance a pre-med schedule with basketball. He said Princeton allows all sports to practice from 4:45-7:30 and no classes are held during that time.

“That kind of helps out,” he said.

Aririguzoh has big goals ahead. He plans to visit Nigeria — where he hasn’t been since he was 4 — “in the next two years.”

By then, he could be in med school or he could be playing professional basketball somewhere. A scout from the New Orleans Pelicans watched the Harvard game, and scouts from the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets have called.

“He could play anywhere he wants,” Henderson said. “I think he can play at the highest levels of basketball, but if he decided to go to med school next year, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.”

Before then, there’s the matter of closing out the Ivy League regular-season beginning with Yale this weekend and then trying to win the conference’s automatic bid to the Big Dance at the Ivy League Tournament March 14-15 at Harvard.

“We want to win the league and we want to win the Ivy League Tournament,” he said. “That’s our two main goals. That will be the biggest [determining factor] for us for a successful season.”

Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.