The final decision very well might have been made as I type this, but that shouldn’t preclude me from bringing you folks up to date on the final public presentation for the Brandon University men’s basketball position.

Mike Raimbault, who was handed the job as an interim coach last summer, provided far and away the top presentation of the three candidates.

That, however, doesn’t mean he’s keeping his job.

Raimbault dealt well with his shortcomings, namely recruiting, and forced those in attendance to take him seriously as a coach who could bring the best talent into Brandon. He presented a slide that had his depth chart of players who are either returning, have verballed or have been approached during the year and they ranged from JUCO/NAIA-level players in Alabama, Oklahoma and California, to high school and mature students around Canada. He also outlined his recruiting contacts in North America, a list of 20-some names that — at the very least — showed that he’s not just out there on his own.

Believe what he put on the projector or not, what that tactic did was brought the attention (if momentarily) away from Vassell’s ability as a recruiter and showed that Raimbault can potentially get it done too. All of this isn’t to say that suddenly Raimbault is the next great recruiter at BU, but you can’t say he didn’t make his case in that category.

Raimbault was nervous and it showed at times, but he eventually settled in and opened with discussion about his view on academics and community involvement, while relaying stories about Bobcats being out and about in Brandon this past season.

Raimbault’s effort was, perhaps expectedly, the most impassioned of the three as well. A Brandonite who knows that CIS jobs don’t come along often, never mind in your hometown with your alma mater, which happens to be a national contender.

Raimbault absolutely had to have a knock-you-off-your feet presentation on Wednesday and if what he came up with didn’t do that, he sure as hell came close.

Rightly or wrongly, I’m still not entirely convinced it was enough to keep him at BU.

• • •

Another message board that has discussion about Canadian basketball, has had a post lingering there about the BU search and it has been polluted by some misguided posts. The most recent of which came on Wednesday. I NEVER respond to such things and am almost ashamed of myself for going forward with this next bit, but for some reason feel it necessary. You can read the post here. (The one that mentions the Brandon Sun).

My columns in this week’s Brandon Sun have been opinion pieces but they have been analysis of what was observed at the presentations. They have not been commentaries on resumes, they have not been commentaries on the interviews afterwards. I have, in my best efforts, attempted to give those who weren’t in attendance a glimpse into what happened in that lecture theatre on each of the three days. As such, here was what was written in Wednesday’s Sun:

“And so Vassell still has to convince the hiring committee that, in addition to his shiny resume of playing and coaching exploits overseas, he can also handle the other aspects of the job, which include teaching.

That’s perhaps where Vassell’s presentation fell short — if, that is, you care about such things. Twenty minutes is not a lot of time to sum up a career plus discuss all your philosophies and positions, but Vassell did not dip deeply into much discourse about the education portion of the job, which is a large chunk of the pie at Brandon University.”

This, it should be noted, also came after a number of paragraphs of praise for Vassell and what he managed to do in his 20-minute time frame. In no way did I take a shot at Vassell’s lack of a Masters and put that on him as if the same issue didn’t exist for the other two candidates. I specifically say that’s where Vassell’s presentation fell short, not he as a candidate. In fact, the column was more pro-Vassell than I had wanted it to be. I felt I could have been more down the middle, but c’est la vie.

Again, I hate that I even addressed this because I don’t get into wars of words nor see any point to doing so. But I’m sure, the basketball community being tight-knit as it is in this country, the person who posted that incorrect and ill-considered message will stop by our page at some point and read what I’ve posted here. I felt compelled to point them in the right direction and do something I rarely do and actually defend myself as a journalist.

Don’t publicly call out my paper — and by virtue me, as well — for facts not discussed in the article itself.