Multiple outlets are reporting: Doug Gottlieb to Green Bay is happening. Yes, the same Doug Gottlieb. Yes, the men’s basketball head coaching job. Barring a last-minute reversal, Doug Gottlieb will be the next head coach of the UW–Green Bay Phoenix. He will also reportedly continue to do his daily radio show for Fox Sports.
Mostly, this is funny. Gottlieb’s a funny character. I’m pretty sure his coaching experience is limited to a brief stint of volunteer work, assisting at his high school nearly thirty years ago after briefly derailing his playing career by stealing a credit card as a freshman at Notre Dame. Since then, he’s been a player at Oklahoma State, a player in a few sub-NBA leagues, and a media personality, often rousing rabble in the latter role. He isn’t exactly a lightning rod these days—he didn’t necessarily soften as much as media caught up to his style—but he’s still a funny character. His most notable moment this season, in the blogosphere, was when he called Big East fans douchebags during the saga where Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster tried to intimidate a DePaul fan making Big East documentaries for fun. Gottlieb seemed to mean the douchebag thing as a compliment.
What’s even funnier is that Gottlieb is the perfect level of celebrity for a program of Green Bay’s stature. This is the equivalent of if the Hornets hired JJ Redick, but scaled all the way down to the middle (and sometimes bottom) of the Horizon League. Green Bay’s fallen off dramatically since the Brian Wardle days, and Brian Wardle only won one conference title, a regular season crown in 2014. The program was in terrible shape, enjoyed a miraculous turnaround under Sundance Wicks, immediately lost Wicks (possibly because Jeff Linder was having so much trouble recruiting transfers to Wyoming that he turned tail and ran), and is now doing the “hire a celebrity as a coach” thing except the best celebrity they can get is Doug Gottlieb. Also, Gottlieb’s a SoCal guy? And always has been, aside from his playing days? And he was reportedly in consideration for the job a year ago??
It’s a goofy situation. I don’t know that we’ll actually hear more about Green Bay basketball because of it. I don’t know that it can go worse than Will Ryan’s time at UWGB went (Ryan preceded Wicks), and it’s completely possible Green Bay has discovered a diamond hiding in plain sight. More than being smart or dumb, though, this is mostly funny. There will be a day in December when UWGB’s playing Central Michigan and no other games are on and we all say, “Oh yeah! Doug Gottlieb’s coaching Green Bay!”
I’m excited for that day.
Update: I just realized Doug Gottlieb is UWGB’s answer to Coach Prime at Colorado. The empire strikes back.
