2005 Season Summary
The St. Mary’s Gaels were coming off one of the greatest seasons in the history of the program as they finished the 2004-05 campaign with a mark of 25-9 straight up, including a West Coast Conference mark of 11-3, which was good for a strong second place finish just one game behind perennial league power Gonzaga.
The Gaels finished the stellar season with a pointspread record of 15-15 as after operating in the black for most of the season as a “surprise team” they then suffered from a depletion of board value once the “word was out” as they got the cash in just five of their final twelve games against the pointspread.
The 2004-05 season ended with a bid in the “Big Dance” of the NCAA tournament before the Gaels lost in the first round SU&ATS to end a season few of their fans would ever forget.
The outstanding season, however, “outed” St. Mary’s and they would face much higher expectations and scrutiny as a result of their success. This scrutiny would come in all directions from gamblers, oddsmakers, and their on-court opponents who would now bring their best shot each night on the floor.
Near Worthless at the start
St. Mary’s opened the 2005-06 season with an unlined 93-41 home win over UC Santa Cruz. Their lined opener was a neutral court affair with Colorado, which they lost 54-73 as 8-point dogs. In their first lined home game of the season, the Gaels fared little better as they lost to Rutgers 69-75 as 2-point chalks. The bleeding stopped temporarily with a 61-73 loss/cover at Arizona as whopping 18-point dogs but then resumed with a 51-63 loss at Air Force as 10.5-point dogs as St. Mary’s was near worthless at the start of the season.
The Gaels next took three games away from the board to regroup and scored straight up home wins over Southeastern Louisiana, Texas A&M CC, and Mississippi Valley State.
Back on the board at home against Kent State, the Gaels failed yet again with a 61-59 win in which the failed to cover the 3.5-point spread. That was followed by a 66-70 home loss to St. Joseph’s as 1-point dogs.
Up, then back down
St. Mary’s 1-5 ATS start helped to enhance their board value as the gambling masses were turned off by their losing. The Gaels were able, in fact, to get the cash in their next two games starting with an 89-80 home win over Nevada as 2.5-point dogs, which was then followed by a 65-57 win at Texas Christian as 1-point dogs.
But from there, the Gaels proved to be up, then back down as they lost at home to rival Gonzaga 60-68 as 4.5-point dogs. That was then followed by a 72-74 overtime home loss to Portland as 9-point chalks. A third straight failure came at San Francisco 52-53 as 1-point dogs. After a strong 83-61 win at Pepperdine as 1.5-point chalks, the Gaels went back into the tank with back to back SU&ATS losses at Loyola Marymount and at home to San Diego.
Back in black
The Gaels had simply not been able to establish any consistency on the board, and gamblers were wary of them. As was the case earlier in the season all of the losing would serve to briefly enhance St. Mary’s board value, starting with an 88-70 home win over San Francisco as 6-point chalks, which was then followed by a 66-52 win at Portland as 2-point chalks. That was followed by a 61-62 loss at Gonzaga as 13.5 point dogs as the Gaels were back in black with three straight payoffs.
Down/up pattern
From that point on, St. Mary’s finished with a down/up pattern starting with a loss/cover at Gonzaga. They went on to go 6-0 straight up and 3-3 ATS to finish the regular season before going 1-1 SU and 0-1-1 ATS in the WCC Tourney.