WINNIPEG - There was a moment in March of 2007 when Mike Raimbault was sitting on the Brandon University Bobcats bench as an assistant coach to Barnaby Craddock with the BU men's basketball team immersed in a tight national semifinal with the Saint Mary's Huskies.
Late in the game, in a hostile environment and with the outcome still very much in the balance, the coaches were contemplating subbing out fourth-year veteran Adam Hartman, who had just picked up his fourth foul.
Mulberry HandbagsCraddock and Raimbault both looked across the floor. Seated courtside was Winnipeg Wesmen coach Dave Crook, who saw the coaches and gave them a hand gesture that told them to just relax and roll with your top guy. They heeded Crook's silent advice, Hartman scored 20 points and BU went on to a 79-74 win.
Ironically, three years later, Crook was once again sitting across the room from Raimbault on Tuesday, but this time at a press conference to watch the 28-year-old Brandonite accept the job he held just a few months ago.
As reported first in the Brandon Sun, Raimbault was named the new Wesmen head men's basketball coach, taking over for Crook, who coached the team for eight and a half seasons but vacated the position in January in what was officially termed by the school as a "resignation."
Raimbault and Crook remain good friends and the new coach tipped his hat to Crook."He has been very good to me in the past," said Raimbault, a former Bobcat player and coach, decked out in a red Wesmen hoody. "We had a chance to build a strong relationship and ... he's been genuinely supportive overall."
Crook, too, was effusive in his praise of the man taking over, despite the difficulty of the situation.
"I think he's the best young coach in Canada," Crook said. "When that horrible day happened to me in January the first name that I thought of ... would be Mike Raimbault.
"In his year (as head coach) in Brandon, he was 20-2 (in 2008-09) and everybody said it was Barnaby's team. Hey, somebody had to go to practice everyday, somebody had to prepare for the game. ... It makes my transition easier when I see someone who I have a lot of faith in and I respect taking the job."
LED Light Bulb MR16-3WRaimbault won a national college championship last month with the Northern British Columbia Timberwolves and was named the national coach of the year in his second season in Prince George, B.C. With Keith Vassell resigning his position at BU recently, Raimbault's name was immediately bandied about as a possible successor.
"It was definitely something that was out there but, at the end of the day, this was something that was the most exciting and the best fit for me and my family," he said.
"... I think (U of W) is a great university and I think it's a program that has all the things in place so that we can be successful."
The Wesmen went 1-19 makeup brush last season and Raimbault's job will be to overhaul a program that has posted sub-.500 records the past three years.
"Obviously I'm really excited to be back home in Manitoba," Raimbault said. "... Last year was a difficult situation for everyone involved in the program but, at the same time as an outsider looking in, there's definitely potential to get things moving back in the right direction."
Raimbault was originally to be introduced at a press conference
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