The Brandon Bobcats are back in the Wheat City today without a clue if they should even bother practising this week.

The Bobcats win over the Calgary Dinos in the Canada West bronze medal game on Saturday was a big step towards getting back to nationals, but it might not have been big enough, and now the Bobcats will wait in limbo to see if they’ll get that coveted at-large bid into Ottawa next week.

So let’s break down the bid for the wild card:

• On various blogs, message boards and the like, there has been a lot of debate over what teams will be thrown in the mix as if to offer up discussion. But let’s quash that discussion right now: The only teams that have a shot at the wild card are Brandon and Acadia. So drop Toronto, Windsor and the fourth Ontario team out of the equation. Take the second-place Quebec team and tell them thanks but no thanks and you silver-medallists in the AUS — whoever you may be if you’re not the Axemen — sorry but you’re done too.

In reality, the debate between AU and BU isn’t as close as you might think it. While Brandon’s RPI (power index) is higher than Acadia’s, the Axemen have a better win percentage and the Bobcats have a middling 6-7 mark against teams with a record of .500 or better, whereas Acadia is 7-4 against the same quality of opponents. Also, as per the CIS’ at-large selection policy, the Bobcats semifinal exit to a team that didn’t end up winning the conference won’t be looked highly upon either. Add in that Acadia is currently ranked higher than Brandon and also holds a win in the one meeting the two teams had this season (in December at the Wesmen Classic) and you have to figure the Axemen are a lock should they not win the AUS title next weekend.

You can read the CIS procedures for selecting the at-large berth by downloading the .pdf file here.

• I was disappointed in the crowds in Calgary only because I had been told earlier in the week that the school had already sold out tickets to the event only to watch and see a lot of empty seats. Now, I’m not bashing Calgary here at all. Heaven knows a sellout in Canada is the equivalent of successfully having all the children of the world join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace (a la Steve Martin’s Holiday Wish). It just felt, through watching the webcasts, as if the building wasn’t as full as perhaps it was expected to me. Correct me if I’m wrong.

• I thought it was a well done effort by the U of C’s NUTV crew to put on the four games successfully with multiple cameras, and a feel that it was a full-fledged broadcast crew bringing the game. One gripe? The announcing was, in a word, painful. It’s a simple process to go and ask a coach before the game to make sure you have pronunciations of players and it’s also ill-advised to constantly make jokes on air that you and your buddies think are funny but no one else does. Trust me, I’m the least funny person I know. It’s not going to put you in high favour when you’re someone who goes out and slams a group of volunteers, but let’s put it this way: By having that aspect of the broadcast come off as unprofessional and (truly) like a joke, it slighted the entire production, which was actually quite good. A number of viewers took shots at NUTV as a whole even though it was just one aspect and, in the end, that’s unfortunate because NUTV’s effort was worthy of an applause save for that.

• I’m still trying to figure out how Calgary threw away their chance to go to nationals. I mean, look at the numbers, especially from Saturday’s loss to Brandon. Seriously LOOK at these. … Henry Bekkering still goes for 23 and 8 despite playing through foul trouble all game long. … Brandon fouls out its starting post, his back-up, and HIS back-up too, PLUS the guy (Eric Holm) who comes in off the bench when the Bobcats need to go small-ball. … The Dinos shot 48 free throws to 31 for Brandon.

If you’re a member of the Dinos and you were presented these facts before the game and were told that this was going to happen, is there any way in the world you would think you were going to lose that game?

Of course, in that scenario we’ve cleverly left out the fact that you’re going to get out-rebounded 55-39, shoot 28.8 per cent from the field in your own gym and have one of your best players (Ross Bekkering) not make a FG and go 0-for-6.

And those last two facts are the most alarming: How Calgary managed, on its own floor, to shoot just 30 per cent for the weekend (they were 22-for-68 in Friday’s loss to UBC) is absolutely mind-blowing to me. Come to think of it, the first fact is alarming to me too: They were drastically out-rebounded in both losses. A team that has great size and athleticism among its bigs and the Dinos were out-boarded 102-71 for the weekend.

Those are the facts in the cold light of day for Calgary. No one said post-mortems were glamorous.

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Switching our focus elsewhere, and let’s check out the OUA where the Western Mustangs are trying to remind us all that there still exists a men’s basketball team in London, Ont. Who knew?

Well, don’t look now but the Mustangs — they of the 12-10 record and fourth place in the OUA West — are relevant again after winning the West and earning one of two auto berths out of Ontario. They might be the Monmouth or Western Kentucky of the nationals, the team with the muddy record that … gets bounced in the first round.

But we’ve seen it before: No first-round game is a lock and the Mustangs are playing well at the right time of year. That said, I’m not anxious to jump on the bandwagon of a team that has losses to Ryerson and Laurentian in the same calendar year.

• • • • •

In Quebec, Concordia beat out UQAM in the semifinal and Laval’s through after a win over McGill. The Rouge et Or win the final by 15.

• • • • •

In the AUS, the Axemen go in as the favourite but they could pull a semifinal game against Saint Mary’s, a match-up the Axemen can’t be gleeful to see. The Huskies have defeated Acadia twice this year and are always tough in the Metro Centre, and maybe more so this year considering this will be the only tournament the faithful in Halifax will have to to cheer. Meanwhile, Cape Breton has the unenviable task of going three games in three days to try to earn the AUS bid, something Acadia did last year on the way to the title.

And there’s St. FX just kind of hanging out. The X-Men, who had won six of the previous seven AUS titles before Acadia won last season, are perhaps happily playing the role of underdog this season. They earn a first-round bye and should face Cape Breton in the semis, assuming the Capers do what they’re supposed to do and beat Dalhousie in the first round.