“Everyone is so sensitive about everything. This stuff is supposed to be fun,” the ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said. “The fact that the N.B.A. has more fun than college is disturbing. They can enjoy what’s going on around them and then lock into what they’re supposed to do. The college guys certainly can do it, too.”

Seton Hall officials declined to comment on the “Mr. Trololo” video. Representatives at the schools that beat Rutgers while being subjected to the bizarre clips, Stony Brook and Hartford, did not respond to requests for comment.

Rutgers defeated Wisconsin on Friday at home with its most extensive playlist yet — seven minutes of YouTube absurdity that included singing bananas in pajamas and Donny and Marie Osmond.

“I told the guys to stay focused,” said Aaron Moesch, a Wisconsin senior. “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like that before in any arena.”

Some see gamesmanship, sportsmanship and humor as a strange mix. The idea of tricks, however benign, to rattle rivals “seems antithetical to hosting someone, to the roots of competition to strive together,” said Jack Bowen, author of the book “Sport, Ethics and Leadership.”

But he had to admit: It’s funny.

“There is something clever in what they’re doing,” Bowen said. “On one hand I like it; it’s not in your face. It’s not doing anything explicitly wrong. It’s the kind of things that millennials will say, ‘Wow, that is an awesome way to throw these people off.’”