The Gophers' 70-67 victory over Ohio State in men's basketball on Thursday was notable for multiple reasons, not the least of which was Minnesota getting its first Big Ten win of the season and doing it as a 15-point underdog.
But just as interesting as the outcome was the way the game was presented by FS1 — and how that influenced the experience of watching what ended up being a very tight game.
Billed as an "All Access" broadcast, FS1 split the screen during game action between the court and smaller panels of both head coaches — Ben Johnson for the Gophers and Ohio State's Chris Holtmann. The game was shown with commercials.
The coaches were mic'd up, and you could hear them barking instructions and wearing their emotions throughout the game. During timeouts, cameras went into huddles to see and hear what the coaches were drawing up.
While there are glimpses of this sort of thing in a lot of televised sports these days, having it be constant was very intriguing — and, to me, quite appealing, as I talked about on Friday's Daily Delivery podcast.
It gave the game a combination of intensity and intimacy that it would not have had otherwise. That it became a rather dramatic game, and unexpectedly so given the Gophers' status and the large point spread, added to the appeal.
A lot of you agreed, replying to one of my tweets with comments like, "It was one of the coolest ways to watch a game I've ever experienced" and "how do we get that for every game? That was outstanding."
A great illustration of how the added access gave more depth to decision-making: When Johnson called timeout after Ta'Lon Cooper missed the first of two free throws with 1.7 seconds left and the score tied 67-67.
