Do weird YouTube videos have strategic benefits in the sports world? Rutgers University is exploring that idea. For the past month, New Jersey institution’s basketball team, the Scarlet Knights, has played strange video clips on the jumbotron while opponents go through their warmup routines.
On December 16, as the visiting Seton Hall Pirates took the court at the Rutgers Athletic Center, they are greeted not by familiar arena rock or hip-hop, but by the smiling face of Edward Khil, who serenades them with his viral “Trololo” song. The goal is to take opponents outside of their comfort zones, so that they struggle to prepare for their matchups with Rutgers. “Their players were looking up at the video board, and we thought, ‘Wow this is making a little bit of difference,’” Rutgers assistant director of marketing Mike Greengarten told The New York Times. “‘It’s getting in their head a little bit.’”
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@SetonHallMBB has some weird warm-up music. Let’s go @RutgersMBB! #DeckTheHall #PackTheRAC pic.twitter.com/vXmT8xNydR
— Jordan C (@RU_JSC) December 16, 2017
Greengarten and his colleagues aren’t going to run out of ammunition anytime soon. They’ve used the iconic “Never Gonna Give You Up” video to Rickroll foes and have plumbed the depths of YouTube in search of strange, obscure clips worth broadcasting over the jumbotron. The New York Times report indicates that Greengarten has assembled a list of more than 100 videos, all of which could potentially distract players. Someone should tell him about “important videos.”
Does Rutgers’ unusual tactic actually pay dividends? So far, the Scarlet Knights are 2-2 at home since the initiation of the YouTube video strategy, so the Trololo guy’s presence at basketball games may be more of a curiosity than a competitive advantage.
