海角大神

Forget the human cheerleader towers and football's end-zone dances. College basketball's emerging stars are the Monmouth Hawks benchwarmers.

The Monmouth Hawks basketball team聽rolled聽Georgetown聽with an 83-68 victory Tuesday night.聽That鈥檚 nice.

But the buzz on Monmouth University, West Long Branch, N.J聽campus is over the newly released YouTube video "Bench Celebrations 101." The Hawks benchwarmers are聽delivering the message 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need to be on the court to score big鈥� and their hilarious聽Sistine Chapel pose聽is what people will be talking about for years to come.

Some of their聽staple routines, which draw from pop culture聽include: 鈥淗awks,鈥� where they flap their arms while leaping up and down like the mascot and 鈥淪uperheroes,鈥� where one member notches and lets fly invisible arrows like Hawkeye from聽The Avengers.

The self-titled 鈥淢onmouth Bench Mob鈥� didn鈥檛 invent聽bench antics聽which have been around for years. Back in 2014 the聽Colby Maine Mules聽emerged in the national spotlight as their sideline performances went viral.

It all harkens back to a tipping point in 2008 when聽Mark Titus聽author of 鈥淒on鈥檛 Put Me In Coach,鈥� who began as a high school basketball star, ended up as a benchwarmer at Ohio State University. He used his time on the bench to write a humorous blog, which became the 2012 book.

Eventually, Mr. Titus turned his experience into a fundraiser with聽鈥淐lub Trillion鈥澛燭-shirts benefiting the聽Kid Again聽organization. Club Trillion comes from a basketball scoring term for when a player is on court for one minute, but records no significant statistics. The box score result in that case is a host of zeroes, or 鈥渁 trillion.鈥�

Some purists have taken to Twitter to snipe at these trillionaires, whose riches are unlikely to come from future NBA contracts, but their humor. The Mob's Twitter handle is聽@MonmouthBench.

However, the majority on Twitter are ready to root for these rowdy聽Rudys.

Ryan Totka, founder of聽Athlete Promotions聽in Dallas, Texas, a New Jersey native, says in an interview that he is so impressed with the Mob that he鈥檚 waiting for them to graduate so he can offer them his services and begin booking them for speaking engagements on their techniques.

鈥淚 saw the Sistine Chapel. That was hilarious,鈥� says Mr. Totka. 鈥淭hese guys really have a future, maybe not in the NBA but wherever they go people will instantly know who they are, especially in the Northeast. It鈥檚 like being a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. People see that on a resume and their eyes light up because they have that recognition.鈥�

Totka says that while 鈥渢here may be some purists who object to this kind of fun on the sidelines鈥� overall it鈥檚 a boon to the team, university and ultimately the benchwarmers themselves.

聽鈥淓verybody on social, ESPN, Sports Center is seeing it and it鈥檚 great for recruiting because people are seeing the team more often than just the games,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e everywhere all the time now.鈥�

Totka adds that聽鈥淭hey鈥檙e not so much cheerleaders as best supporting actors,鈥� he adds. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not playing, but making a contribution from the bench. These guys are walking off with the basketball Oscar.鈥�