Justin Fox, Columnist

Think March Madness Is Boring? Skip the Highlights

Sports fans want narrative, knowledge and insight. Giving it to them looks like the key to keep them watching.

March 15, 2018 at 4:00 PM UTC

Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business, economics and other topics involving charts. A former editorial director of the Harvard Business Review, he is author of “The Myth of the Rational Market.”

Don't fall asleep on UVA's Cavaliers.
Photographer: Al Bello/Getty Images

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My wife and I went to our first and only basketball game of the season last Friday night. It was the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinal between Clemson and the University of Virginia (my wife's alma mater), and it was played in Brooklyn. Beforehand, we both read Andy Staples' excellent Sports Illustrated cover story on top-ranked UVA's stifling defense. A sample:

Sure enough, from our nosebleed seats high in Barclays Center, we could see these patterns develop before our eyes. Virginia fell behind 20-13 early in the game as Clemson players sank a few tough outside shots and Virginia players failed to, but the team and its coaches exuded no sense of urgency or panic. Another relevant quote from Staples' article: