Andrei And MBB Game Day

The Cincinnati Bengals still have a chance at the NFL playoffs as the regular season heads into its final week.

The team wouldn't have had it lost to the Denver Broncos Saturday afternoon, in what turned out to be one of the best games this season. Just when it looked like one team had it won, something crazy would happen — an injury that saved a timeout, a miraculous fourth-down throw and touchdown catch, a short field goal that clanked off the upright — changed everything on a dime. 

In the end, it was the Bengals 30-24 in overtime, giving the team four straight wins and keeping alive the chance that a team that has been dynamic on offense all season while struggling on defense may sneak into the playoffs. Should that be the case, it would be one team nobody would really want to play. 

TigerBlog is rooting for the Bengals, largely because of Princeton alum Andrei Iosivas. In just his second year with the team, Iosivas has been Cincinnati's No. 3 receiver, making him an important part of the passing game led by quarterback Joe Burrow and featuring fellow wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins and three tights ends.

Iosivas had three catches for 59 yards against Denver, pushing his season stats to 34 receptions, 467 yards (13.7 per catch) and six touchdowns. He almost had another touchdown in the game Saturday on a beautiful and run of 50 yards, only to have it called back by a penalty.

He has 10 touchdown receptions for his career to date as he clearly has already established himself as a solid NFL wide receiver. He also had 16 touchdown catches in three Princeton seasons, so if he matches this year's total next year, then he'd have as many NFL TD receptions as he had in college.

Iosivas' athletic path could have taken a different turn had he pursued his other option, which was as a track and field decathlete. In truth, Iosivas is one of the very best all-around athletes Princeton has ever had, someone who could have probably played any sport and immediately been great at it. 

TB remembers a time when he saw Iosivas on a Jadwin Gym side court bounce a basketball off the floor, catch it in mid-air and dunk it. 

The Jadwin Gym main court will host the Princeton men's basketball team this afternoon at 1, when the Tigers take on Akron out of the MAC. As an aside, that's either a really good or really bad segue; TB isn't sure which quite yet. 

Today's game will be the third in the season and first in Princeton. In what states were the other two played?

Well, TB will give you Ohio (62-58 Akron win in 2012). That's fairly obvious. The other? That was in Hawaii (64-62 Princeton win in 2017).

If the game today is played at the normal pace that both teams like to go, then this time it'll take way more than 62 or 64 points to win it. Princeton averages 76.9 points per game and put up 83 in its last game, that thrilling one-point win against Rutgers at the Prudential Center nine days ago. 

Akron averages 81.2 points per game. The Zips are 7-4, and in those 11 games, the winning team has reached 90 points four times. 

Expect to see a lot of three-pointers attempted. Princeton, as you know, loves to shoot from deep. Akron does too, even more so. 

Princeton ranks 20th in Division I in three-pointers made per game, at 10.7. Akron ranks sixth, at 11.5. Between them, the teams take more than 60 threes per game. 

The Akron roster has nine players from the state of Ohio. There is one player with a Princeton connection — Bowman Hardman, who went to Princeton High School (the one in Ohio). Hardman by the way is one of nine — that's right, nine — Zips players who averages at least seven points per game, while no player averages more than 13.3.

With so many threes that figure to be taken, there also figure to be a lot of opportunities for offensive rebounds, something both teams do very well. Akron is 21st in Division I with 14.3 per game; Princeton had 19 of them in the win over Rutgers. 

On paper, at least, this looks like it should be a fun one.