For the UC Riverside Highlanders, it couldn’t have gotten much worse than the 2004-05 season as they finished with a record of 9-19 straight up with just ten covers in twenty four lined games against the college basketball pointspreads.
In the Big West Conference, however, fortunes can change up and down very quickly so there was always the possibility of a recovery or even of Riverside become something of an unwanted bargain value on the board. But the more concrete evidence suggested that the Highlanders would be in for another long year. The only hope from a college basketball gambling perspective was that Riverside would be so unappealing to the college basketball betting masses that they would be transformed into a quiet value-added team. But that was iffy at best as this was a sorry program with no real pattern of success.
Fell flat on their face out of the gate
UC Riverside began the 2005-06 season with a horrific 55-86 blowout loss at Washington State as 17-point dogs. That was followed by a 74-92 loss at Portland as 14.5-point dogs. Next was a 65-82 loss to San Diego as 3.5-point dogs. That was followed by a 48-81 debacle at Southern California as 16.5-point dogs.
There was no mercy to be found at San Diego where the Highlanders lost 67-94 as 15-point dogs. Home cooking couldn’t even stem the tide as the Highlanders lost to Eastern Washington 70-85 as 6-point dogs as they fell flat on their faces out of the gate with six consecutive losses against the spread.
Brief bargain values
It would be near impossible to conceive of a team as unappealing as UC Riverside when you combined the catastrophic start with the horrible season prior. All of this combined to transform the Highlanders into brief bargain values.
Riverside began their resurgence with a 67-77 loss at home to Montana as 12.5-point dogs. That was followed by an unlined home loss to Puget Sound.
Back on the board at Santa Clara, the Highlanders got the cash in a 61-63 loss as 17-point dogs. That was followed by another unlined loss to Boston University on a neutral court.
The Highlanders continued their black ink run with a 61-63 loss/cover against Santa Barbara as 9-point dogs. That was followed by a 55-66 loss at home to Cal Poly SLO as 3-point chalks and then an 83-71 major upset win at Pacific as 22-point dogs.
Red ink resumed
The huge win at Pacific seemed to cause a hangover affect as the Highlanders went right back into the tank starting with a 62-76 loss at Northridge as 11-point dogs. That was followed by a 79-90 loss to Cal State Fullerton as 7-point dogs. The red ink resumed with a 61-71 loss to UC Irvine as 7-point home dogs and that was followed by a 70-82 home loss to Long Beach as 5-point dogs. Even unlined opponents gave Riverside a hard time as evidenced by the Highlanders 69-75 loss at UC Davis.
Back on the board, the Highlanders applied a band aid to their bleeding with a 78-73 OT win at Fullerton as 13-point dogs. But the bleeding resumed immediately after with a 56-74 loss to Northridge as 1.5-point home dogs.
Pacific scored a big time revenge win, 95-58 at Riverside as a 13-point road chalk and the Highlanders were then blown out at Irvine 37-63 as 16.5-point dogs.
Unwanted value
Having just completed a stretch in which they lost seven of eight games against the spread, the Highlanders were again in the role of an unwanted value and covered their final four lined games of the regular season before losing both SU & ATS to Santa Barbara in the Big West tourney.