So I guess offering to live blog through the entire tournament was a pretty far-reaching endeavour. But while we have a break in the action at the Duckworth Centre, let’s deal with a couple of things prior to the 6 p.m. semifinal tip-off.

• As mentioned before, Nathan Grant received an on-court technical for Brandon, got put on the bench, then was responsible for a bench tech less than three minutes later. BU head coach Mike Raimbault later put Grant back in the game, a decision I didn’t agree with. I like Raimbault, I think Grant is a solid competitor, but I don’t think you send the right message when a player commits that sin yet you insert him back into the game. There were foul trouble issues to deal with, yes, but in that case you still have to stick to your guns. For the record, Grant is not the kind of player who will dismiss his own actions and slough off what he did, but — just in my opinion — that’s a spot for a coach to make a statement to his player.
• Acadia rebounded well from its Friday loss to Calgary and you can really see the similarities between the two teams. The Axemen have a tonne of athletes to send at you and they shoot the ball very, very well even in a gym they’ve never played in before. Nice win by the Axemen and while I think their No. 2 ranking is a little lofty considering their first-half schedule, you can’t suggest they don’t deserve to be talked about in the top five.
• I also mentioned the hour-long discussion the Bobcats held after their loss, so let’s now deal with that:

My long break in between posts during the Brandon-Acadia consolation semifinal was far from my fault. I waited by the staircase that leads to the dressing rooms at the Duckworth Centre.

And I waited.

And I waited.

And I waited.

Then I thought about leaving to do some work, but worried that as soon as I left, the Brandon Bobcats would emerge from their basement lair.

So I waited.

Seventy-six minutes after a loss to the Axemen, the Bobcats did indeed come out of their team room and there wasn’t a happy face among them. Understandable because they’ve been decidedly average through two games of the Wesmen Classic so far with just one game left to serve as a confidence boost heading into the new year. Whatever boost they do get, however, from playing the RMC Paladins in the seventh-place final of the eight-team tournament should be minimal. This outing in Winnipeg has been a disaster for the Bobcats but the hour-plus team meeting on Saturday should at least be an encouraging sign that they understand their play has been unacceptable if they are to indeed be a national contender.

This is a team not far removed from a 9-1 first half of conference play, a team that had come into the Classic with a more-than-acceptable 13-3 overall record. But two losses has overshadowed all of that and the Bobcats are soul-searching.

Understand that two losses in a row is seen by this team as unmitigated failure and the Bobcats reacted as such. Raimbault did not comment specifically on what was said in the dressing room, deciding to play politically correct and just state that they were discussing what needs to happen for them to get back to the level at which they want to be. Two losses to some teams is barely noteworthy but to this squad that has such high hopes of returning to the national championship game those defeats are magnified that much more.

I’m going to make up a few words here, so bear with me: Acadia out-executed, out-athleticked, out-hustled, out-performed and outsmarted the Bobcats on Saturday and their chance to show they belong again in the national discussion was put on hold for the time being. Brandon will get Calgary in conference play later in January, will get a chance to head to Vancouver and Victoria as well, so the chances are still there for them to make that noise they hoped to make this weekend but fell so short of doing.

For better or for worse, it may just be that they look back on one hour in a dressing room that altered their next three months on the court.