You know, once upon a time, the NIT was the bigger deal in American college basketball. It once held that getting an invite to the National Invitational Tournament held more juice for coaches and teams than going to the NCAA’s.

And it got us at The Scrum thinking: What if Canada had an NIT?

And we thought a bit more, and we looked at this year’s CIS nationals field and thought: Wouldn’t this year’s NIT be infinitely more riveting than the CIS? What if we, in a perfect world, could shake our fists at the CIS and trump them by building a 16-team bracket, going bigger and better than the piddly eight-team format of the CIS?

And like Barack Obama, we said: YES WE CAN!

So Swatter and Larks sat down over the MSN and mulled this issue for a good eight minutes before coming up with a field of 16 that, when paired against the CIS tournament, looks to be much more enticing viewing.

We didn’t get bogged down with policies, we didn’t set hard-and-fast rules and we didn’t act like our jobs depended on the seeding. We just went with our guts and avoided conference-on-conference first-round match-ups. The biggest challenge, however, was finding a name for this big gong show that is now threatening to be the biggest event of spring in Canada. Yes, it’s that big.

So we mulled. Again, this took about four minutes.

And in the end we came up with a name that, we believe, best reflects the likely emotions from a number of the teams that have been relegated to The Little Dance. We arrived at:

“The National Eff You CIS Invitational Tournament powered by TheScrumBrandon.com”

We all know you wanted to be in the big show, but it doesn’t always work that way. That’s why ours is an invitational. We want all 16 of you to know you’re wanted in this tournament. One wild card in the CIS? Screw that, you’re ALL wild cards in our minds. And you can all band together and say a collective eff you to the organization that didn’t find you worthy of Ottawa. And you know what else? No ‘host’ berths here, people. You get into the NEYCIT powered by TheScrumBrandon.com on your own merits, not because your school ponied up more money than the last guys.

The one last challenge was finding a venue for the tournament. Ideally you want a sexy locale, a place that draws thousands — if not for the basketball, then for the sights, sounds and night life that surround it. You need a neutral site because, again, we’re not into giving home-court advantage away. So the natural selection, of course, was….

Sudbury, Ontario.

Located in beautiful northeastern Ontario, Greater Sudbury is home to the largest integrated mining complex in the world and of course, that huge honkin’ nickel. The site of Laurentian University, Sudbury will serve all your basketball needs and we at The Scrum get the satisfaction of knowing we’re giving the fans there a chance to actually watch significant basketball games happen in late winter for the first time in this century.

And so without further adieu, we unveil the seedings for the The National Eff You CIS Invitational Tournament powered by TheScrumBrandon.com to be played at the glorious Ben F. Avery Physical Education Centre.

1. Brandon Bobcats
2. Ottawa Gee-Gees
3. Calgary Dinos
4. Toronto Varsity Blues
5. Windsor Lancers
6. St. Francis Xavier X-Men
7. Dalhousie Tigers
8. Concordia Stingers
9. Cape Breton Capers
10. Guelph Gryphons
11. Victoria Vikes
12. Saskatchewan Huskies
13. Simon Fraser Clan
14. Queen’s Golden Gaels
15. UQAM Citadins
16. McGill Redmen

Tune in to this week’s podcast as we break down and discuss our field of 16. Also watch for a post later this week where we pick all our winners.

Larkins has been slowed — but not completely halted — by a busy weekend of actually doing the job he’s paid for and an illness that is a cross between rubella and the Bubonic Plague. But don’t worry, good ol’ Black Death ain’t enough to keep me from bringing you loyal readers some ill-informed, hastily put together opinions on the approaching nationals. It’s the least I could do.

First off, the wild card decision. Acadia gets the one at-large berth into nationals and puts to rest the debate over what team was more deserving. In the end, (as has been said in this space before) it was a two-horse race between the Axemen and the Bobcats and Acadia was the consensus pick.

Before dealing with these two, it’s apt to take this time to give thanks for the fact that Acadia’s selection means the official end to all the ludicrous and utterly annoying jabber that somehow Toronto deserved to be the wild card. Listen, Toronto had a nice season and did some noteworthy things, and OUA East coach of the year Mike Katz is deserving of credit for getting what he did out of his team, but the bottom line is you can not, in any logical way that requires common sense, come to the table and suggest that a team that is — at best — the fifth team in the Ontario conference somehow deserves to leapfrog not only the two teams that were still standing in the OUA playoffs, but also the second-place AUS team and the third-place Canada West team. This has been, to some, a popular argument over the past week or so and I, for one, am rejoicing that we don’t have to hear about it anymore. Presumably.

Tough on the Brandon Bobcats to have to watch their season end the way it did and, as I wrote in today’s Brandon Sun, no one wanted to see the ‘Cats fifth-year seniors go out like this. Yul Michel politely declined to speak to the media afterwards (which was understood), Adam Hartman said he couldn’t find any words to say to his teammates and that he felt sick to his stomach, and even the usually gregarious and outspoken Yuri Whyms struggled to come to terms with a career that ended with a phone call.

And as difficult as it is for these players to swallow, the fact is the numbers simply added up better for the Axemen and when Acadia dropped the AUS final to Saint Mary’s on Sunday afternoon, most everyone knew the writing was on the wall.

The reality is that BU built up a strong record against teams with sub-.500 records and 15 of their 20 wins in the regular season were against teams with said record. When you factor in that the overall record also shows a 6-7 mark against teams with a better than .500 record, including a Christmas loss to Acadia, then you quickly see that BU’s chances were slim to beat out the Axemen, who were 8-2 against the plus-.500 teams. We’re not ignoring the fact that Brandon got wins off UBC (in Vancouver) and twice beat Calgary, including once on the road, but there were seemingly just two many black marks against the Bobcats this time around.

And that is unfortunate, because if you look at this field it has to shape up as one of the, on paper, weakest fields we’ve seen at nationals. Now, before you get on the “win to get in” bandwagon and tell me that the teams that are there deserve to be there, I’m fully aware of the fact that the teams that are in Ottawa are there because they took care of business. Let’s please not have any emails pointing out that very obvious fact.

Yet we have one team (Western) that didn’t taste the top 10 this season and had a regular season record of two games above .500; another team that hasn’t been in the top 10 in 2008 (SMU); a team that went 3-4 in the playoffs including getting swept in its divisional final (Alberta); and a team from the weakest conference in the land (Laval), whose lone “good win” came against Brock in October. But as I said on a few occasions on Sunday to people interested in the tournament: It’s not who wins the most games, but who wins the right games. Never was this more evident than this year.

Now, while the argument can be made that there’s level representation from the four conferences (two CanWest, three Ontario, one Quebec, two AUS), that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve got a competitive balance from one to eight. I also think it’s the Western Mustangs who get the best draw in the first round.

Think about it: • You’re an Ontario team, so you’re likely pulling some fans into the building. • Now it’s SMU that has to travel and play in an unfamiliar building (something the rest of the country has learned about the past 24 years). • And you’re getting a team that is famous for catching fire in their home-away-from-home building of the Halifax Metro Centre. Do you believe that this team, which shot 30 per cent from three — one of the absolute worst rates in the country — is catching fire in a completely foreign gym?

Western is happy, trust me. And Acadia too. The Axemen get Laval despite having to take the back door into the tournament. The wild card berth could’ve netted you a No. 8 seed. Instead Acadia gets a team that is far from battle-tested against the rest of the country’s elite.

And Brandon will watch it all on TV. Proof once again that, at this time of year, when you’re looking to make reservations for nationals, you don’t ask someone else to hold your tickets.

An interview with Brandon women’s basketball coach Jaime Hickson (11:00); a preview of the women’s Final Eight tournament; an in-depth look at TheScrumBrandon.com curse (31:45); a wildcard debate (34:50); and an episode of Blindside (46:19) featuring thoughts on Saved By The Bell, sleet, Gary Bettman, Pros vs. Joes, and hairless cats. Plus, Larkins ponders a future in the hip hop industry.

 

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Remember when I told you not to believe anything of what you’re about to read? Turns out I was right. Time to adjust a few things:

The long-held misconception, and even I fell victim to it and should have known better, is that conference winners earn a top-five seed. And even as I sat there and read the policies of the CIS on seeding, and saw it in black and white, I still placed Laval in a top-five spot even though they’re not necessarily privy to that.

iii) Without affecting the integrity of the championship, efforts should be made where possible to have two Sport Conference Champions in each of the two brackets.

Now, if you think of the tournament as a bracket rather than a ranking, then you can see where Laval could be placed lower in the seeding and still adhere to this rule.

I’m not going to go back into a whole breakdown of every scenario again, but let’s just throw out a hypothetical ranking here and vibe off that:

1. Carleton
2. Acadia (AUS champs)
3. UBC
4. Brandon (wild card)
5. Laval
6. Ottawa/Brock (third OUA)
7. Western
8. Alberta

Laval could conceivably drop into the No. 8 slot given the fact the Rouge et Or have played in the weakest conference in the country and have dipped into the rankings just once all season. But I think that’s still an unfair spot to slot a conference champion, even if it is in the Q. Call me sensitive.

Now, in this scenario we’ve got conference champions on both sides of the bracket, we’ve avoided placing conference teams against each other and, all in all, it looks fair. The only thing that people will perhaps gripe with (and it’s a fair beef) is that the wild card team, if it’s Brandon, has been placed at 4 while Alberta, which beat Brandon three times and earned silver in the conference, gets the short end of the stick and goes to 8. Again, this may very well be a spot where you flip Alberta and Laval, assuming the committee is wont to place a conference champ that low. If ever there was an argument for a conference winner being seeded that low it’s this year with the Q.

Thanks to Ken Murray at Brock, who clarified a couple of things to me in terms of regulations for seeding. This, again, is just my opinion on how it might (MIGHT) shake down. Heaven knows nothing will be clear until Sunday evening.

Too much to talk about today, so no intro here. Let’s just say this is one attempt at weeding through a very cluttered nationals picture. Two things are really affecting where teams go and that is the OUA third-place game this weekend that will determine the third and final OUA bid into nationals; and the AUS tournament that will determine who gets the wild card: Brandon or Acadia. With that said, here’s one man’s thoughts. Keep in mind this is a work in progress and also keep in mind we’re assuming Laval as the champion of the Q:

SCENARIO 1: Ottawa wins, Acadia wins AUS

With the Axemen winning the AUS, the wild card goes to Brandon and Ottawa comes in as the No. 3 Ontario team.

A couple of things to consider from here on out: The committee will slot conference champions in the top five seeds and will go to great pains to avoid an intra-conference first-round match-up. Meaning, Ottawa won’t be slotted in the 8 to face the top-seed Carleton (the OUA East rivals). So how about this?

1. Carleton
2. Acadia
3. UBC
4. Laval
5. Western
6. Ottawa
7. Alberta
8. Brandon

In this set-up you avoid any intra-conference battles, you get your conference winners all in the top five and, don’t look now, but you get a rematch of last year’s national final in the first round. Now, you could make an argument that the committee would like to avoid a Carleton/Brandon first-round, but I don’t buy it. Also, you could debate that the No. 2 out of Canada West shouldn’t be placed behind the No. 3 from Ontario, but putting Alberta at 6 isn’t an option with UBC at the 3. You could also put Alberta in the 8, with Brandon at the 7 given the fact that Brandon did have the better national standing, etc., all year. But, again, it’s a tough sell to suggest that Alberta, which beat BU three times this season and finished higher at the conference final four, gets a much worse draw than the Bobcats. Alberta at 5 and Western at 6 could also work.

SCENARIO 2: Brock wins, Acadia wins AUS

This probably doesn’t affect things significantly more than the Ottawa scenario, but it could create a wrinkle or two.

1. Carleton
2. Acadia
3. Laval
4. UBC
5. Western
6. Alberta
7. Brandon
8. Brock

The real sticking point here is the No. 3 seed. Truthfully UBC deserves it over the likes of Laval and Western, but where you slot the T-Birds has a snowball effect later on down. So, just for the sake of discussion, let’s move UBC into the 4 (even though I don’t believe they belong there). Now that gives you the flexibility of flipping Brandon and Alberta in the 6 and 7 slots and then Brock, which has hovered in the 7-Unranked area all season, gets the Ravens in the first round (you can pit OUA West against East). If you keep UBC in the 3, then you have to move Western down to the 6 and Alberta up to 5. My question mark here is whether or not Western counts as a conference champion, and thus, automatically earning a top-five spot. My thought is no.

This second set-up is more for just stirring things up. I still think that you’d revert back to something closer to the first scenario, regardless if Brock or Ottawa wins the third OUA berth.

SCENARIO 3: Acadia loses AUS, Ottawa wins

This and the following scenario is based on the theory that the Axemen win the wild card if it’s between them and Brandon.

1. Carleton
2. UBC
3. AUS Champions
4. Laval
5. Alberta
6. Western
7. Ottawa
8. Acadia

Here we’ve assumed Western is not privileged to a top-five spot and given the Canada West runners-up, the Golden Bears, the No. 5 hole. The AUS champions are in a spot where they could get either 3 or 4 depending on who they are. If it’s Cape Breton, a team that spent the past eight weeks in the top 10, then you can justify — I think — moving the Capers into that 3 spot. If it’s St. Francis Xavier, however, it’s more of a sell job to convince people they deserve anything higher than a 4 when they haven’t seen the rankings yet this season. Also, despite being No. 2 currently, the Axemen drop into the 8 as a wild card, thus avoiding the Ottawa-Carleton match-up.

SCENARIO 4: Acadia loses AUS, Brock wins

1. Carleton
2. UBC
3. AUS Champions
4. Laval
5. Alberta
6. Western
7. Acadia
8. Brock

This one stands to be a little more straightforward. We’ve just flip-flopped Acadia and Brock and essentially said that the wild card is worth more than the No. 3 in the OUA when that wild card is being held by a team that has been in the top four since November.

• • • • •

Again, this is all just shooting the bull right now, all off the top of my head. There is most certainly minor tinkering that can be applied here, so feel free to shed your thoughts and email thescrumbrandon@gmail.com.

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.

• • • • •

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.

A few thoughts on the Canada West final four after a night of “upsets” in the semifinals on Friday night.

• The Calgary Dinos and Brandon Bobcats only have themselves to blame. Subpar efforts in the biggest games of your season generally result in you going home.

• First Calgary, which essentially watched its automatic berth go in the toilet when the Dinos gave up 32 points in the third quarter. Most notably, however, was not so much the fact the Dinos lost the rebounding battle, but how badly they lost it. All year long we’ve heard about how big and athletic the Calgary interior is but UBC dominated, with a 47-32 advantage. Take away top conference frosh Tyler Fiddler and Ross Bekkering and their nine boards each, and the rest of the Dinos managed to grab just 14 misses. But as Brandon beat Calgary in January, the T-Birds did in February: A team effort on the boards. Even guard Chris Dyck had a double-double with 10 rebounds.

Add in that Calgary went 8-for-26 from the three and shot 32 per cent from the field and you can see why the T-Birds are booking tickets while the Dinos are clinging to their last life.

• Well done by UBC to go into that environment and cooly dismantle the Dinos. I commented to a coach prior to the game that I wasn’t sure if the T-Birds had those calming influences, the type of players who, when things were getting dicey, could settle the troops and take them forward. I was unbelievably wrong as Dyck, Brent Malish and Matt Rachar all submitted big games.

• And Brandon. Woah Brandon.

I’m not one who will be hesitant to give credit where credit is due even if it appears in contrast to what I just wrote. That said, a solid coaching job by Don Horwood in the final stages. He mixed things up defensively, and threw out a trapping press that drove Brandon nuts and got his team back in the game when the Bobcats should have been focusing on closing the game out.

Most teams don’t trap and press Brandon. Not much, anyway. Their backcourt is athletic and quick and if you can’t lock them down right away, then they can easily turn it into numbers the other way and create lay-ups. But Alberta aggressively sought to double on the inbound pass after a make and got right in the face of the ball-handler. It was high-risk, high-reward and the reward for Alberta was a come-from-behind win.

BU did not adjust well when things were starting to go away from them. And here is a recurring, and startling, trend from the Bobcats in tight games: Horrendous shot selection. Shots early in the shot clock when you’re protecting a lead, first-touch hoists and in-traffic bombs.

• I will say this: I have no belief whatsoever that Brandon rebounds and beats Calgary tonight. The season is on the line, the careers for three Bobcats with it, and this is normally where I’d say the Bobcats respond with their anger and attitude and do what they need to do to get their seniors — Adam Hartman, Yul Michel and Yuri Whyms — back into the national tournament one last time. This has not been a team, however, that has been in the business of restoring faith lately. The reality is that they’re 2-2 in the playoffs and have a subpar record against above-.500 teams and are 3-7 against teams that have been in the top 15 this season.

Calgary 88, Brandon 76.