Doug Gottlieb is choosing to focus only on college basketball. The head coach at Green Bay decided to put pause on his daily, three-hour national radio show after more than two decades.
He was not pressured to do so by the university.
This decision puts an end to one of the most interesting stories in college basketball but it gives the Phoenix the best chance to win. The players deserve a head coach who is all-in on coaching.s
Green Bay is showing signs of life.
The first year of the Doug Gottlieb experiment at Green Bay was a complete and total disaster. The Phoenix finished at 4-28 as one of the worst teams in the country.
It also lost a buy game to a Division-II school that Gottlieb indirectly called ‘Nobody U’.
To make matters worse, the first-year head coach flew to the Super Bowl to show face on radio row during a game week. He claims the trip did not have any impact on his team but it was poor optics.
Optics were a big part of the situation. Critics, myself included, questioned how a Division-I college basketball coach with zero prior coaching experience would be able to succeed in his primary job as a Division-I college basketball coach while also working as a national radio host.
Green Bay’s record in year one made it clear that it was not going to work.
Year two of the Gottlieb experiment is off to a better start than year one but the dual employment agreement continued to create problems for the head coach. Take last week, for example.
Gottlieb revealed that he was unable to ride the bus with his team to a road game at IU Indy. His radio show required him to fly to the game by himself.
The Phoenix ultimately won its game against The System by 10 points. It was a big step in the right direction after a 4-7 start but it didn’t change the optics of Gottlieb’s travel. A team that is serious about winning should not travel without its head coach because he is too busy hosting a radio show. I think know most Division-I athletic directors would agree.
Doug Gottlieb finally understands.
Less than seven days after Gottlieb slid into my DMs to vehemently defend his dual employment, the 49-year-old announced on Wednesday night that he is going step down from his daily radio show to focus more of his time on basketball. It was a shocking and emotional decision.
The timing is rather ironic, given our heated conversation last week. Doug Gottlieb has been adamant since the beginning that he can handle two jobs at once and, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette, Athletic director Josh Mood did not ask him to step away from the mic.
“This is Doug,” Moon told the Gazette. “[I had] no part. We’ve talked about it since he has been hired, and we wouldn’t have hired him if it was an issue. This was in Doug’s court.”
The players also stood by his dual employment.
““I’m like, ‘It doesn’t really change anything for us,'” said junior forward Marcus Hall. “Some people might see it as not fully dedicated, but you could ask any player on our team, any coach, and I feel like he works just as hard if not harder than anyone else on the team. It’s cool that he will say that and he’s fully dedicated, but he was before that.”
Hall did seem to forget that his head coach did not travel with him to Indianapolis last week, which is something that other Division-I coaches do not do. But it won’t be a problem for Gottlieb moving forward.
He is going to focus more on his job.
A head coach who demands 100% from his players is willing to give more of his time to his employment as the head men’s basketball coach at Green Bay. His decision actually stems from an admirable desire to spend more time on the things that really matter, like his children.
“Thanksgiving, I had all three of my kids in town. I had to work on a Friday because I wanted to bank those holiday days for when we travel or for game prep or whatever. It’s really hard.”
A guy who was making two six-figure salaries from two separate jobs is only going to make $250,000 from his job as a Division-I basketball coach moving forward. That’s how dedicated he is!
“It’s going to be, obviously, a bit of a financial hit. I’ll work through it. I have been blessed beyond all measures.”
Although there is something incongruent about Gottlieb’s desire to “have a life” in contrast to his scathing rant in my DMs, his heart (and head) finally seems to be in the right place. A basketball coach should be able to take time off to be with his family, etc. — as long as he gives his the rest of his time to his job. A daily three-hour radio show did not make that possible.
“I have got to be here for those kids, and I have really got to dig in, because we are building something cool here.”
Gottlieb announced his decision to step away from the radio after a good win. Green Bay defeated a solid UCSB team that entered at 8-3 to get one game closer to .500. His decision to step away from the radio makes his story a lot less interesting but we can now judge him only as a head coach. Go win!