The Columbia Lions finished the 2004-05 season with a mark of 12-15 straight up and 7-10 against the college basketball gambling lines. The Lions and their backers suffered a catastrophic finish to the season as Columbia failed to get the cash in eight of their final eleven games.
Low Expectations
One has to sometimes scratch their heads and wonder why Columbia even has sports programs as they simply do not excel at anything. From a college basketball gambling perspective, few teams were as anonymous or as unappealing as the Lions, which might serve to make them a value-added team on the board from time to time as a result of those annual low expectations.
Columbia Lions Out of sight and out of mind
Columbia Lions would open the 2005-06 season out of sight and out of mind as they would be off the board for their first eight games of the year.
The season opened for the Lions with a 64-61 home win over New Hampshire. That was followed by a 73-71 home win over Troy.
A three game road trip followed starting with an 80-63 win at LIU Brooklyn. That was followed by a 55-54 win at Stony Brook and then a 61-59 win at Sacred Heart as Columbia started off 5-0 straight up.
The Lions were unable to sustain momentum, however, beginning with a 66-67 home loss to Army. That was followed by a 71-83 loss at Wagner and then a 71-67 home win over Lafayette as the Lions finished 6-2 off the board as they prepared for their first lined games of the season
Up then down
In their first line game at Notre Dame, Columbia Lions scored a 68-75 loss/cover as 19.5-point dogs. That was followed by an ugly 39-63 neutral court to St. John’s as 10.5-point dogs followed by a 54-63 neutral court loss to St. Peter’s as 4-point dogs for a up then down start.
Columbia was next off the board for two more games starting with a 57-65 home loss to Lehigh followed by an 82-42 home win over City College of New York.
Profitable start Columbia Lions
Columbia Lions opened the Ivy League portion of their schedule with a 64-68 overtime loss/cover at Princeton as 6-point dogs. That was followed by a 55-87 loss at league favorite Pennsylvania as 18-point dogs. In their next game at Cornell, the Tigers got the cash in a 58-57 win as 6-point dogs for a profitable start of 2-1 against the board in Ivy League action.
Reality began to set in
Columbia came home to face Cornell as a 3.5-point chalk and was blown off the court 59-81 as reality began to set in. That was followed by a 59-69 home loss to Harvard as 3-point dogs. Next was a 68-78 home loss to Dartmouth as 5.5-point chalks.
The bleeding stopped temporarily for Columbia in a 67-74 loss at Yale as 9.5-point dogs but they slipped back again with a 75-86 loss at Brown as 4-point dogs.
Unwanted bargain values
As was usually the case, there weren’t a lot of gambler lining up and saying “I want to get down on Columbia Lions.”
The Lions simply have lacked any mass appeal through the years, except as a team to oppose. And this has often served to transform them into unwanted bargain values as was the case in their next three games, starting with a shocking 59-57 home win over Pennsylvania as 14.5-point dogs. That was followed by a 65-64 home win over Princeton as 1-point dogs and then a 68-56 home win over Brown as 3-point chalks for a third straight payoff.
Columbia couldn’t sustain success, however, as they went 0-3 straight up and 1-2 against the spread to end the year.