Ten Most Annoying Phrases in Recruiting

So the Pinkie has been around for a whole year now. We’ve grown by leaps and bounds and a big part of that growth has been covering UK basketball recruiting, particularly since John Calipari was hired. I’ve learned more about the world of recruiting than I ever thought I would, and I’m not even a scout or an insider.

I’ve enjoyed most of it, but every once in a while, I come across things that just make me cringe. The way that kids are capitalized on when they have no chance to earn for themselves is frustrating. The John Wall situation is a perfect illustration of that.

However, now is not the time for my treatise against AAU basketball and the ills of the seedy basketball underworld. Now is the time for my treatise against something much more mundane, much more insignificant: those annoying buzzwords and phrases that you simply CANNOT avoid when you are trying to read up on Coach Cal’s next big prospect.

I’ll preface my list by saying that I myself am guilty of using these phrases from time to time. In fact, it was when I went back and read one of my own posts on recruiting when I had the idea for this post in the first place. Needless to say, I cringed when I realized what I had done.

Let’s get straight into it, here are the 10 most annoying buzzwords in recruiting:

10. “…For his services” – As in “Kentucky and Louisville are in the running for his services.”

Starting things off with a bang. It seems to me like this phrase would make much more sense if there were a highly sought after janitor that had job offers from a couple competing high schools.

9. “…Making a strong push” – As in “Bruce Pearl and Tennessee are making a strong push for Tobias Harris.”

It’s not so much that I have any problem with this phrase, I just have a problem with how often people use it. Honestly, take 8 seconds every once in a while to try to come up with another set of words that means the same thing.

8. “Pull the trigger” – As in “Brandon Knight will wait until the spring signing period to pull the trigger.”

Another vastly overused one, with a nice weapons reference. A true winner.

7. “Package deal” – As in “Wayne Blackshear and Mike Shaw have declared themselves to be a package deal.”

This one is bad because the rumored package deals so rarely work out that way. Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas…I don’t think I need to say anything more.

6. “Camp” – As in “The John Wall camp took a long time before they decided on Kentucky.”

Seriously, these are teenage kids deciding where they are going to college, not a president calling in his closest advisors to decide whether to drop the big one.

5. “At the end of the day” – As in “At the end of the day, it just came down to style of play.”

This is one buzzword that is not limited to recruiting.

4. “Off the board” – As in “Stacey Poole is off the board.”

I understand that some coaches and analysts actually have a physical recruiting board, but I don’t, so I don’t like it.

3. “I’m still wide open” – As in “I really enjoyed my visit, but I’m still wide open.”

This is one that the recruits themselves say and it frustrates me because when it is used, it can mean anything from “I’m actually still wide open” to “I know exactly where I’m going to school but I want to be coy and make a big announcement of it, so I’m still going to say I’m wide open”.

2. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” – As in “There are multiple rumors floating around about an impending commitment, but no official announcement has been made. However, where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.”

Some guy back in 1000 BC was really original and witty when he came up with this. 3000 years later…not so much.

1. “Done deal” – As in “DeMarcus Cousins to Kentucky is a done deal.”

My hatred for this one comes not from recruiting, but from the multiple times I heard an insider say that Billy Donovan to UK was a done deal.