Doug Gottlieb Q&A: How the FOX Sports radio host landed at UW-Green Bay
Doug Gottlieb was driving along Interstate 405 in California with his sunglasses on when the alert came to his phone. Jeff Linder was leaving his Wyoming head coaching job for the top assistant role under Grant McCasland at Texas Tech.
"I thought to myself, ‘oh man, I know what that means,'" Gottlieb told FOX Sports with a laugh on Tuesday night.
It meant that former Cowboys assistant Sundance Wicks was a lead candidate to take over at Wyoming, opening up the job at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, a position that Gottlieb had interviewed for last year. This time around, the 48-year-old FOX Sports radio host and one of the biggest faces in the college basketball media world did in fact get the call from athletic director Josh Moon.
Gottlieb, a two-time NCAA single-season assists leader and the record holder in Oklahoma State men's basketball history under Hall of Fame coach Eddie Sutton, will now be patrolling the sidelines this fall for the Phoenix. But he won't just be coaching basketball. Gottlieb will also continue doing his daily radio show, which airs from 3-5 p.m. ET.
[Green Bay hires Doug Gottlieb as men's basketball coach]
It is one of the most unique coaching hires we have ever seen in college basketball, in which a former player who has been a lead media personality but has never coached at the college or professional level is now jumping into a head coaching job in the college game while continuing his main responsibility as a broadcaster.
But there's a science behind this balance for Gottlieb, who joined FOX Sports via phone Tuesday night from the plane before his flight from Arizona to Wisconsin took off for his introductory press conference Wednesday morning.
Why was this the right time and situation for you to become a college basketball head coach?
"You know the saying: ‘If not now, then when?' My daughters Harper and Grace are off to college and my son Hayes is heading to high school. I wasn't going to be able to coach him there. I don't think people understand, or have a healthy understanding, of how hard it is to get a job.
"My brother Gregg is as good as anybody in coaching and has been at it for 30 years, including being an assistant under Steve Fisher at San Diego State and now being with the SDSU women's program, and he was a finalist for Green Bay when Will Ryan got the job in 2020. And then, to get a job that's already been turned around and flipped by Sundance Wicks (18 wins this past year), in the Horizon League, which is competitive, but it's not a top-five league in the country, and at a place that a lot of people have won, this is a golden opportunity. They were down two years ago, but it was not a down program. I think there are all of those factors and then this is personal for me.
"Green Bay is in the same system my dad Bob coached in (1975-80 at UW-Milwaukee). Wisconsin is the state I was born in, and at that level, at the mid-major level, you've got a lot of players in the state of Wisconsin. You've got Wisconsin and Minnesota talent all over the board, and in this world where kids transfer all the time, we can get kids to transfer to us.
"I was born at Columbia Hospital in Milwaukee, which is an hour and a half away from our campus. My mom, who traveled around with my dad throughout his coaching career, will tell you her favorite stop along the way was not Jacksonville or Kansas State or Creighton or Long Beach State. It was UW-Milwaukee. And it's because of the great people in the state of Wisconsin who care about each other. I've always had a special place in my heart for the area, and now can't wait to get a chance to leave my mark there. If not now, when? If not me, who? I've sat here forever and waited."
How did this process to land the Green Bay job get started and come together?
"It happened so fast. I was driving home Thursday on the 405, and I was in self-drive. I'm looking at my phone and (Jeff) Linder has left for Texas Tech. I thought to myself, ‘oh man, I know what that means.' On Friday, Josh (Moon) talked and said ‘I don't know what Sundance (Wicks) will do, but I just wanted to talk and gauge if you're still interested in our job.' Well, Sunny (Wicks) was out of pocket Saturday. On Sunday, there was more conversation, and Sunday night, Sunny did not have a contract yet at Wyoming. I got texts from a bunch of college basketball insiders, you included, and I had nothing to tell people. I'm not lying. I had nothing to tell people then. It was a while in waiting.
"I probably could have taken that time to take a step back a little bit, but here's the deal: In order to dive into these things, you've got to be prepared. I've been trying to help kids and agents on the other side of college basketball during the offseason, in addition to my broadcasting duties. That has allowed me to form even more connections. So, on Sunday, I started to talk to anybody and everybody in the sport, from agents to coaches, to look at the salary that I would be making as a head coach.
"Last year, I had a meeting with assistant coaches to get some guys in my corner in the event that I got this job. I interviewed for it last year, but obviously that did not happen. But, those guys are still in place. I haven't had the chance to take a breath and wasn't going to with the way this was trending. On Monday, and now Tuesday, we reached the finish line."
What were those conversations with other coaches like, and when was that moment for you that this could become reality?
"Sunday is when everything got real. I went to the beach and I wanted to put my phone away in my pocket. I put my AirPods on, and I thought I wouldn't look at my device. Then I got a call from Josh Pastner (former Georgia Tech, Memphis head coach). He asked me right away if my phone was going crazy (laughs). Josh was really amazing, talking to me and giving me great advice. He and I are members of the JCA, the Jewish Coaches Association, and those guys have been amazing during this process and so helpful.
"(Providence head coach) Kim English reached out to talk with me, and then it really hit me when Tom Izzo reached out. Tom reached out, and I could not answer because I was on with the Green Bay people, but that meant the world. I feel so bad that we did not talk, but I'm hopeful we will this week. Bobby Hurley called me, and for those who do not know me, growing up, Bobby was my idol. Then, (UConn assistant) Luke (Murray) and Dan (Hurley) reached out to me. They were so helpful and so supportive.
"I think that's been a really rewarding part of this. It's really cool to feel all the years of work that I've been a part of on the broadcasting side, meeting with coaches before and after games and learning about their teams, and that there is in fact a relationship. It means a lot that they're being supportive of me jumping into their world."
Now, the question that everybody wants to know the answer to: How do you balance coaching and hosting your FOX Sports radio show every weekday?
"First, there are finances involved in this decision. I think they actually mutually promote themselves. This gives Green Bay something different. It's going to help our program with NIL money and recruiting. And the other thing is, it allows me to take less money and pay my assistant coaches more. But it gives Josh (Moon) and the entire UW-Green Bay athletic department a new kind of publicity. With my connections in the basketball world and in the media, I believe the show is a great way for us to only promote the program."
Gottlieb's deep rolodex could be seen in Green Bay's press release on his hire, in which Izzo, Shaka Smart, Fran McCaffrey and several others, including Colin Cowherd, were quoted.
What's your recruiting game plan?
"I've connected with each of the kids that I'm inheriting daily. I coach and recruit the way I wanted to be coached and recruited: with energy, passion and a will to win. I'm a communicator. I paint a realistic picture and always will with my players because that's what I lived by under Coach (Eddie) Sutton at Oklahoma State. The non-negotiable is our toughness and competitiveness and our desire to get better. When you challenge your kids to do those things, you get to where you want to be, because if they put those things in day in and day out, that's the right baseline you want to establish."
What would the Hall of Famer, your coach, Eddie Sutton, be saying right now?
**impersonating Sutton's voice**
"That's going to be a hell of a job, son. Dick Bennett (father of Virginia head coach Tony Bennett) did a hell of a job there (1985-95). Now, go get players. If they don't want to play your way, make them come help you coach."
"That was his way of saying, sit them on the bench. He'd also say, ‘hire people you trust. It will go a long way.' But he'd be positive and very happy about this because that's who Eddie was."
In today's climate, many coaches are complaining about the transfer portal, NIL and the current climate. Obviously, you have a daily radio show and have made your points on dealing with it and not whining, but accepting the climate. As a head coach, how much do you want to be the voice of reason?
"You have to get with the times or you'll fail. We will raise NIL at Green Bay. We will have NIL money, I can promise you that. You've got to embrace what's happening. Honestly, the coaching of some club teams I've done in Israel has meant the rosters are changing and there's so much happening on the fly. In AAU summer basketball, you're constantly seeing kids move on. You're constantly recruiting kids and parents with different personalities and styles. Honestly, college basketball is morphing into that model if it hasn't already.
"I like making kids better, putting on music in the gym and helping them. Look, when I see kids benefiting from name, image and likeness, that's a success story. We just produced one at Green Bay with Horizon League Player of the Year Noah Reynolds transferring to TCU and getting paid. He's here and gone. That's the idea of college – you go to school and come out in a better situation with a job.
"Now, I don't like paying players that haven't performed. You have to earn it. For our level, we will have great NIL. I can assure you of that. But we also want guys to come in and be so good that we have to retain them, and that's what we'll look to build in our program."
What kind of coach do you think you will be?
"I'm not going to practice for three hours at a time. We may go twice in a day, with one hour here, then an hour and 15 minutes in another session. To me, if you invest in your kids and then invest in your program's brand, everybody involved loves it. The kids will always, always come first for me. I get the player's mindset of trying to get better and seeking to get paid. Real NIL is when you go out and make a name for yourself, then you get benefits of it. You prove to people why you deserve it, then you make a big payday. I want to produce those success stories and I want us to make it happen at Green Bay.
"Winning at a high level can absolutely happen here. I hope I can be a fresh voice in college basketball. I also think at this level, if you recruit the right kids that want to be coached, you will win. It's interesting because I texted the kids I inherited saying ‘If you want to work, that's what I want to do.' One of the kids answered right back with this message: ‘Everybody here has one thing on their minds coach, and that is to win games with whatever it takes.' That makes me fully believe we will win here.
"You ever hear the phrase OKGs? Our kind of guys? I want kids who will embrace their role, who will work hard and who will make everyone around them better. That's the Green Bay kind of guy."
Now that you've got this job and you're back in the state you were born in, what do you want to do off the basketball court in the coming weeks and months?
"I have to get to a Packers game at Lambeau, first and foremost. I've never been to a Green Bay Packers game. When my son gets out here, he loves wakeboarding on the water, so I absolutely want to get into Lake Michigan and go wakeboarding with him. I want to head back to Summerfest in Milwaukee. It's the best music festival in the world. I want to head to Alpine Resort in Wisconsin as well.
"As I told my son, who has previously gone to Maine for camp every summer: Wisconsin is the same thing as Maine but with no mountains. There are rivers, streams, hunting, and golf. It's a terrific area."
What do you say to naysayers on social media and those criticizing Green Bay for hiring you?
"There's nothing I can say back to them that will make them feel differently. The only thing I can do is build a team and when we start playing in November, people will see. People will see what we're about and how hard we play.
"We deal on social media with a cesspool of negativity. It's nothing new. This opportunity will always be about me getting the opportunity to develop young men and to represent the Green Bay community. That's what this is all about. People will have to wait and see the product we put on the floor."
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John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on Twitter @John_Fanta.