When you’re a low major basketball program, you can afford to take risks blue bloods cannot. Like, say, hiring a radio host with zero college basketball coaching experience.
That’s what the Green Bay Phoenix are reportedly set to do, making a Jeff Saturday-esque dip outside the world of established coaches to roll the dice on a media personality. Doug Gottlieb was one of the NCAA’s best ball distributors as a point guard at Oklahoma State in the late-1990s, but he’s best known as a syndicated radio host. Now, despite a coaching resume that starts and ends with Team USA at the Maccabiah Games, he’s getting the chance to take over a Division I program.
Green Bay is expected to hire sports talk radio host Doug Gottlieb as its next head coach, source tells SI.
Gottlieb has hunted college jobs for years and now gets an opportunity at Green Bay, where he interviewed last year before the job eventually went to Sundance Wicks.
— Kevin Sweeney (@CBB_Central) May 14, 2024
This is an odd choice, but the Phoenix — the fourth-most notable Division I team in the state of Wisconsin (out of four) can be excused for taking a risk. Green Bay won 16 total games in the three seasons between 2020 and 2023. The school made a great decision when it hired Sundance Wicks before the 2023-2024 season, only to see his 18-win performance rewarded with a job offer at the University of Wyoming.
Enter Gottlieb, who might work despite the evidence to the contrary. Or he might be stretched entirely too thin if, as reported, he’s planning on keeping his daily three-hour radio show ON TOP of a full-time NCAA head coaching gig.
Green Bay is set to hire Doug Gottlieb as its next head coach, source told @thefieldof68.
Gottlieb, 48, was a standout point guard at Notre Dame and Oklahoma state before working in media for the past two decades – at ESPN, CBS and now at FOX, hosting his own daily radio show.…
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) May 14, 2024
That is … huh. At least Jeff Saturday had the presence of mind to leave his desk job at ESPN behind to take over the Indianapolis Colts. Gottlieb is pairing one full time job with another, meaning he’ll have to recruit, scout opponents, work out NIL deals, run practices and create game plans while still finding a way to fill three hours of radio time every weekday.
On top of that, a national radio show obliterates any privacy his program might have enjoyed. Gottlieb’s recruiting pitches will be indelibly tied to the hot takes he makes on air. Any suggestion he’s not the guy you hear on the radio will be met with skepticism, because he’s publicly been that guy for two decades.
When Horizon League rivals eye the same recruit, they’ll be able to make the point that none of their coaches have been sued for libel in the last two years. He’s bringing loud opinions on women’s basketball to a school where the women’s basketball team is by far the most successful program on the books. There is no nuance with a man who spends 15 hours a week shouting into the airwaves; what you see is what you get, and what you get is pretty easy to prepare for.
Green Bay was desperate to maintain the momentum of 2023-2024, a season in which the Phoenix had its second-best ever showing in the Horizon League’s regular season. They landed on a candidate who’ll immediately be the conference’s most recognizable head coach. But that double-edged sword will turn into a falling knife if he can’t focus on the job at hand.
Or, as Ron Swanson once put it:
