The University of Maryland basketball players who threw down a "running man challenge" to athletes across the country showed their dancing chops on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Tuesday.
Terrapins players Jaylen Brantley and Jared Nickens appeared on "Ellen," where they explained what went into the viral dance move.
The Terps began posting Instagram videos last month of them dancing to the 1996 Ghost Town DJ's hit "My Boo." They do the dance — which is a far cry from the running man of the '80s — in the middle of a street, popping out from under a blanket and after getting off a phone call.
Players at Virginia Tech, Villanova University and the University of Miami all accepted the challenge, posting videos of themselves doing the dance. But it turns out two high school students from New Jersey started it.
Jeremiah Hall and Kevin Vincent of Hillside, New Jersey, told DeGeneres they invented the dance when they were bored in a finance class. Later, they saw that Brantley and Nickens did their own version, which went viral.
"We was like, 'What, wait? We made this!" one of the teens said.
Nickens said they were just trying to keep their team happy.
"Basketball is such a grind, especially at the college level, so we just try to keep our teammates loose in the locker room," he said.
DeGeneres presented the high schoolers with an oversized check for $10,000 from Shutterfly to fund their future college tuition. The TV host said NCAA rules barred her from giving the Terps players much, so she presented them with tiny black shorts with their names and team numbers printed on the rear.
The Terps and teens then danced across the stage.
