The voice on the other end of the phone was slightly strained, a rasp to it that quietly screamed of weariness.

It was a long few days — a long week; a long 10 days really — for Les Berry and, when I picked up my office phone to hear him on the other line, his voice told me that.

It was late on the east coast and Berry had returned to Wolfville, N.S., after a close loss for him and his Acadia Axemen in the national final a day earlier and a classic double-overtime victory over Carleton a day before that. One could understand if Berry, whose never been reserved on the sideline, was a bit rundown from the frenetic events of the weekend.

Acadia survived the wild-card process, survived the multi-hyphenated athletes of Laval and, now famously, survived what will go down as one of the greatest CIS games ever in that semifinal dethroning of the five-time champs. In the end, the turnaround — not so much a letdown — was at least partially to blame for the Axemen’s loss in the final. This is not to take one iota away from the Brock Badgers, who caught a three-game hot streak and then out-rebounded the bigger Axemen and won a game despite going just seven-deep.

Having played the emotionally-draining marathon semifinal, the turnaround to be prepared for Sunday’s final was a pretty small window. Considering the 8 p.m. ET tip off, the transit back to the host hotel in Ottawa, the emotional decompression needed after such a stirring victory and you have a mixture that can lead to a weary team the next day.

And you saw a bit of that Sunday. Brock had more energy in the late stages and just managed to make one or two more plays, namely Dusty Bianchin and his big shots late.

Yet if the Axemen were physically beat afterwards, one Carleton Raven came off as absolutely catatonic.

Aaron Doornekamp, who was 4-for-23 from the field in the final, was harassed defensively by AUS defensive player of the year Ash Lual and, after the game, told the Ottawa Sun this:

“You’re not going to win the game when your best players don’t make a shot. (Lual) didn’t do anything. I got every shot I wanted. I just didn’t make any shots.”

Wait, Aaron. You sure about that? Seriously, this is your chance to backtrack and give at least an ounce of credit to your opponent in a hard-fought battle that both teams easily could have won. Honestly… I mean … you sure?

“I’ve seen every matchup,” he said. “I’ve played four years. I’ve seen every matchup. He didn’t do anything. I just missed shots.”

Oooookay then.

The Sun’s columnist called that “accountability.” That’s certainly a glass-half-full way of looking at it. I call it self-indulgent and misguided.

Does this Doornekamp’s quote read with familiarity? Let me take you back to March, 2007. The Ravens have just won their fifth straight national championship in a game that was as emotionally debilitating to the Brandon Bobcats as Carleton’s semifinal loss was to the Ravens. MVP Osvaldo Jeanty, who went 5-for-19 from the field (one an absolute circus shot in the lane late in the game), in a defensive struggle with Brandon’s Yul Michel (incidentally also a conference defensive player of the year), told the Brandon Sun this:

“They didn’t make my life difficult, I thought I made my own life difficult.”

There’s more of that “accountability” I’ve been hearing so much about.

All that’s necessary here is a “they played us tough and credit to them, but I didn’t live up to my end of the bargain.” Just tip your hat and you can avoid the ego-tripping and not come off as the pouter who doesn’t think the other team is worthy of credit.

After Acadia’s loss, Berry talked about his team not having the same kind of intensity that Brock brought. Even if it was hard to admit, that was the reality.

After Carleton’s 2007 win over Brandon, here was Dave Smart:

“Everybody’s going to talk about how both teams didn’t shoot it well, but both teams defended and made everything tough. Brandon did an unbelievable job defensively. They had one day to prepare and what they did to make everything tough on our guys was unbelievable.”

That’s a lot closer to accountability than whatever it was Doornekamp was doing.