PISCATAWAY, N.J. — As the Seton Hall men’s basketball team warmed up for a game at Rutgers recently, a strange baritone filled the arena. Players stopped their stretching routines, gaping at a giant video board overhead playing a 1970s video clip of a Russian singer crooning, “trolololo la/Oh ha ha ha ho! …”
In the video, the singer, Eduard Khil, wearing a double-breasted suit, a frozen smile and a coif like the clip-on hair of a toy figurine, ambles across a mustard-colored backdrop like a mannequin come to life. It was impossible to look away.
Which was the point.