The Western Michigan Broncos finished the 2004-05 season with a record of 20-13 straight up, which included a conference record of 11-7 which was good for a first place tie in the Mid-American Conference West Division. The Broncos finished with a 15-17 mark, however, against the college basketball betting lines. Western Michigan, in fact, faded poorly down the stretch with just four payoffs in their final fourteen regular season games. The Broncos finished the season with a second round loss in the NIT Tournament.
Western Michigan Broncos Frequent fluctuations
Life in the MAC meant that teams would go through frequent fluctuations both on the court and at the sportsbooks. As a mid-major conference, teams from the MAC would fall quickly from the favor of the college basketball gambling public with the slightest transgression, which meant that they could recover board value fairly quickly. It also meant, however, that they would often face being “piled up on” during bad times and good.
Gushing red ink
Few teams could have gotten off to a worse start to the 2005-06 season than the Western Michigan Broncos.
The season began innocently enough with an 82-62 unlined home win over Northwood but quickly imploded from there. In their first lined game of the season the Broncos lost at home to Northern Iowa 63-69 as 3-point dogs. That was followed by a 47-64 blowout loss at Illinois State as 3-point chalks. The bleeding quickly stopped with a 74-77 overtime loss at Detroit as 5-point dogs, which was followed by a 73-72 unlined home win over Indiana-Purdue.
The Broncos began gushing red ink, however, starting with their next game, a 62-77 loss at Southern California as 7-point dogs. That was followed by a 69-87 neutral court loss to Colorado State. Next came a brief break in the losing in the form of a push against Loyola Marymount in the form of a 62-61 win as 1-point chalks.
The losing resumed with a 68-73 neutral court loss at Oregon State in a pick’em affair, which was followed by a 59-81 loss at South Alabama as 7-point dogs. That was then followed by a 55-87 loss at Ohio as 10-point dogs. The bleeding then stopped for a moment with an 84-62 home win over Bowling Green as 6-point chalks.
Once again, however, Western Michigan couldn’t sustain success as they lost to Akron 55-69 as 2.5-point dogs. That was followed by a 62-73 loss at Buffalo as 10.5-point dogs and then a 62-77 loss at Kent State as 12-point dogs as Western Michigan began the season in catastrophic fashion against the board with just two payoffs in their first thirteen games.
Western Michigan Broncos Brief bargain run
Western Michigan had been so bad against the spread that their pace was unsustainable. It had to change, even briefly and did. The Broncos began a brief bargain run with a 59-50 home win over Miami-Ohio as 4-point dogs. That was followed by a 68-62 win at Eastern Michigan as 1-point chalks. Next came a 68-59 home win over Ball State as 4-point chalks followed by a 75-71 overtime win/push as 4-point chalks at Central Michigan. The final payoff of the run came in the form of a 57-53 home win over Toledo as 1.5-point chalks.
Back to form
Western Michigan, unfortunately, went back to form starting with a 60-86 loss at Northern Illinois as 7-point dogs. That was followed by a 53-75 loss at Akron as 12-point dogs. After a 65-62 home win over Ohio as 3-point dogs, the Broncos resumed the red ink run with a 67-64 home win over Eastern Michigan and then a 57-59 home loss to Indiana State as 4-point chalks.
Finished as they began
The Broncos finished the regular season with a mark of 2-2 SU and 1-2-1 ATS. In the MAC tourney they went 1-1 SU and 0-2 ATS to complete the season 2-8-1 ATS as they finished as they began.