Pro Tigers

Of all the feedback TigerBlog has gotten about the Princeton Alumni Weekly Top 25 Princeton athletes of all-time project of which he was a part, the best came from Mark Schwartz, Class of 2006 and one of TB's favorite men's lacrosse alums.

Here is what Mark emailed TB yesterday:

"The top 25 was really interesting! A fascinating follow-up would be the top 5, 10 or 25 coaches in Princeton history..."

And here was TB's response:

"100 percent doing this."

And he will. Soon. Just not today. He needs to put some thought into it. 

Still, that will be a great project. Like TB said, he'll have it soon.

For today, the subject is professional athletes, one in the NFL and another (back) in the NBA. Both of them are recent Princeton grads, Class of 2023.

Andrei Iosivas finished his second season with the Cincinnati Bengals Saturday night with a 19-17 win over Pittsburgh. His season totals: 36 catches, 479 yards, six touchdowns.

There were 470 players who caught at least one pass this NFL season. Iosivas ranked 129th in receptions. That's pretty impressive.

In two seasons now, Iosivas has 51 catches, for 595 yards and 10 touchdowns. That's one TD for every 5.1 receptions, if TB is doing the math correctly.

Unfortunately for Iosivas, his season did, in fact, end with Saturday's win. The Bengals almost were able to overcome their 0-3 and 1-4 start to get into the playoffs, winning their last five to go from 4-8 to 9-8. The win over Pittsburgh meant that Cincinnati would be in the playoffs with losses by Miami and Broncos Sunday. 

Miami lost its game. The other? Denver beat Kansas City 38-0 after the Chiefs rested their best players, partly because the game meant nothing and partly because nobody wanted to see the Bengals in the playoffs. 

Hopefully the team can keep its nucleus together. If so, don't be shocked to see the team in the Super Bowl in a year.

As for the NBA, Tosan Evbuomwan has now made it to the league with a third different team. This time, it's the Brooklyn Nets. 

Evbuomwan, the 2022 Ivy League Player of the Year who led Princeton to the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 a year later, played last season for the Pistons and Grizzlies. He made his 2024-25 debut against the 76ers Sunday night, scoring three points with one rebound, assist and block. 

His second game with the team was last night against Indiana. Evbuomwan had eight points and six rebounds in that one, a 113-99 Indiana win. 

hit up @Tosan_Evb with all your finance questions 💰

get to know the newest member of #NetsWorld pic.twitter.com/ybL6h4Xcez

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) January 6, 2025

As he works to establish himself in the NBA, Evbuomwan has already had great success in the G-League, with a career average of nearly 20 points per game in his two seasons. His most recent appearance in the G-League came after he signed a two-way contract with the Nets.

He then went out and put up 39 points in his first outing with the Long Island Nets (by the way, if you recall the great days of the American Basketball Association, then you know that the Nets were the New York Nets and originally played at the Comack Arena). His 39 points included 13 for 20 shooting from the field and 3 for 4 from three. 

That game — a 129-108 win over over the Grand Rapids Gold — was played in Michigan. The next night, he was on the court for 20 minutes for the Nets. With the team currently dealing with a big series of injuries, the opportunity for playing time is there. 

Here was his quote after the game against the Sixers: 

“Really pleased to have gotten the opportunity,” Evbuomwan said. “Obviously, wanted to win the game, but we weren’t able to do so. But, blessed to be here and meet the guys for the first time.” 

The "meet the guys for the first time" part suggests that as he gets more familiar, his numbers will go up. He's an all-around player, the kind who, as you saw at Princeton, makes everyone better and gets everyone involved. 

He's also improved his three-point shooting, something that's imperative in the three-happy world of the NBA. Evbuomwan is a career 36.1 percent three-point shooter in the NBA, which is more than 10 points higher than his Princeton career average of 25.8 and better than his best season, when he shot 32.4 percent for the Sweet 16 team.