Jon Rothstein always thought Doug Gottlieb “talked” and “thought” like a head coach.
Which is why the CBS Sports college basketball insider believes his former colleague deserves another season at Green Bay. And he might be one of the few people who thinks so, especially with Gottlieb accusing his critics of being “jealous,” despite finishing his first season with the Phoenix with a 4-28 overall record, which included a 21-game losing streak and a last-place finish in the Horizon League.
Gottlieb has also already demanded a mea culpa from “every f*cking one of you,” meaning the media, when his team starts winning.
He doesn’t mean Rothstein, though.
“This is what I want to say right now because I think it’s important: the Doug Gottlieb who maybe is on social media, or maybe is on the air, is not the Doug Gottlieb I think of when his name comes up,” Rothstein told host Brandon Contes on the Awful Announcing Podcast. “I mentioned to you the scary car accident I got in eight years ago. Nobody that I worked with was more of a better friend than Doug Gottlieb during that time — checking on me, inviting me to his house, all that stuff.
“He is a much different person off the air. He’s a great father to his children. He is a much different person off the air than what you see on social media. He’s even said to me, he goes, ‘If I ever go at you on Twitter, you know I love you; don’t take it personally.’ And you know, I know he’s had a tough season; he’s going through it, but he got the job late. He’ll need an offseason to right that ship.”
And according to Gottlieb, part of that process may involve saying less in the public eye.
Shifting the conversation to the broader landscape of college basketball, Rothstein remarked that the challenges for mid-major coaches are more daunting than ever.
“I don’t think it’s ever been more difficult,” Rothstein says. “Forget about Green Bay, just to be a mid-major coach, because think about it right now. We’re now, finally, able to compensate players for Name, Image and Likeness — it should’ve happened a long time ago. But now, if you’re really good at the mid-major level, you’re going to have an opportunity to increase your worth and go play at a higher level and make more money, which is what everybody should do. It’s capitalism.
“And, now, if you’re trying to look at it from a mid-majors perspective, you’re going to try to retain your guys, but if your guys are any good, they’re probably gonna go somewhere else. And look, there’s also mid-major coaches who are able to have great success, and they can’t move on to other jobs, and then they can’t regain the momentum they once had, after maybe winning in the NCAA Tournament.”
“I’ve heard this — I believe Fran Fraschilla, who I’m very close with, told me this once in one of our conversations, and we’re going to see this now over the next 10 days,” Rothstein adds. “I believe the most pressure we may see over the next few weeks is for these favorites in these mid-major conference tournaments. And I think it’s been amplified the last couple of years and I’m going to tell you why. If you won your regular season title, you knew that you were guaranteed a berth in the old postseason NIT. Now, what’s the big difference in the old postseason NIT, now versus the new one? You play games at Madison Square Garden.
“Now, I may be biased because I’m a New Yorker, but that, to me, growing up was still an event. And if you didn’t make the NCAA Tournament and you were a team that could go play in the Garden, that was worth playing for. That ship is no longer there. So, I know there’s more tournaments this year; I know Fox is doing a tournament called ‘The Crown,’ they’re going to do it in Las Vegas the week before the Final Four. But, I think now, getting to the NCAA Tournament is even more of a goal where it’s the ‘NCAA Tournament or bust’ that we’ve seen in past years because of the changes to the other events — especially with the NIT not being at the Garden.”
Gottlieb’s Green Bay team will not have to worry about the NIT or probably any of those tournaments.
Despite the struggles, Green Bay has remained relevant, though not for the reasons Gottlieb would hope. The Phoenix’s disastrous season, combined with Gottlieb’s doubling as a Fox Sports radio personality, has kept them in the conversation, for better or worse.
If Gottlieb can tone down the theatrics and focus on building the program, he might turn his high-profile presence into a reason for success rather than just a punchline.
There are a lot of reasons to think this won’t happen.
But Rothstein isn’t ready to write him off just yet.