Doug Gottlieb's Ridiculed Coaching Fantasy Comes True - He's Now A Major College Coach

Career sports broadcaster Doug Gottlieb, currently of Fox Sports Radio, first started talking publicly about his desire to be a major college head men's basketball coach eight years ago when he was at CBS Sports after leaving ESPN.

Without any significant coaching experience, he actually said in interviews that he wanted to start right off as a head coach, because he was past age 40 and didn't want to spend many years as an assistant coach. National media made fun of his supposed Walter Mitty-like fantasy.

But Oklahoma State, where he was a star point guard from 1997-2000 and led the nation in assists twice, and Tulane considered him before hiring other head coaches.

Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb will keep his radio show while performing in his new job as head men's basketball coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)

Gottlieb kept hunting and was up for various jobs over the years. He was considered for the lowly Wisconsin-Green Bay job last year before it went to Sundance "Sunny" Wicks. Wicks inherited a program that had gone 3-29, 5-25 and 8-17 the three previous seasons. Wicks went 18-14 and was named the Horizon League Coach of the Year. Then he got the Wyoming job last weekend.

And Gottlieb got a call from Wisconsin-Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon.

"Are you still interested?," Moon asked.

"And I said, ‘Hell, yeah,’" Gottlieb, 48, said on the Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday after being introduced as the Wisconsin-Green Bay coach on Tuesday.

Doug Gottlieb Has Much To Prove

"Look, there's the ego part to it that I want to prove myself," Gottlieb said. "I want to prove that all the talking into a headset, all the AAU coaching and overseas coaching is legit."

Now, Gottlieb has a chance to prove himself legitimate, and the doubters wrong.

That includes Patrick, who made light fun of the Wisconsin-Green Bay hire before Gottlieb joined the show. Patrick and his co-hosts mocked Gottlieb as they listed several other small-time college men's basketball jobs currently open as Patrick feigned interest as a potential new coach, too. 

Once on the air with Gottlieb, Patrick fired a tough, sardonic question - "Do you even know your coaching style?"

"Yes," Gottlieb fired back. "I coached, Dan."

"I know," Patrick answered. "I'm talking college."

Then-CBS Sports announcer Doug Gottlieb talks before a game between Seton Hall and Villanova on Jan. 20, 2016, in Newark, New Jersey. (Getty Images)

Gottlieb's previous coaching experience is in pre-college AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) ball in recent years. He was also an assistant for coach Bruce Pearl with the United States team at the Maccabiah Games in 2009, 2017 and '22. He also worked as a consultant with Mike Boynton, who was Oklahoma State's head coach from 2017-24 and is now a Michigan assistant. While at Golden West College in the 1996-97 season, Gottlieb was a player-coach under Tom McCluskey, who was his coach at Tustin High School in California. 

"Basketball's basketball," Gottlieb said.

Well …

"AAU is closer to college now than it's ever been," Gottlieb said and referenced the NCAA Transfer Portal, which has been around since 2021 and changes rosters dramatically yearly. But, it's still AAU.

"Do I know my coaching style? Yes," Gottlieb said.

That will come in handy.

Doug Gottlieb Plans A Fast-Paced Attack

"We'll play open," he said. "I don't like post-ups. That ball's got to move side to side, purposeful movement. It's the new way. We're going to play fast."

Gottlieb said he will draw from his "infatuation with European basketball and NBA basketball." And he will hire a lead assistant to be his defensive coordinator.

"Offense is my specialty,"he said. 

Wow. Hope he did better in his interviews with the Wisconsin-Green Bay athletic director.

"We are thrilled to welcome Doug as the next leader of Wisconsin-Green Bay basketball," Moon said in school release Tuesday. "He has been working towards this moment his entire life. Coaching is in his blood, and he will help us continue to rise."

That was not a lot more to add by Moon, considering Gottlieb's limited work history. But the Wisconsin-Green Bay coach before Wicks had the more conventional background. Will Ryan was an assistant at North Dakota State for seven years and the head coach at Wheeling University in West Virginia for one season before getting to coach Wisconsin-Green Bay beginning with the 2020-21 season. And he promptly went 8-17 and 5-25 before getting fired on Jan. 31, 2003, after a 3-29 start. His assistant coach, Freddie Owens, was promoted to interim coach after seven years as an assistant coach. And he went 1-10. 

So, maybe Gottlieb can at least do better than those two. And he does come from a coaching family.

Gottlieb's father, Bob Gottlieb, was the Wisconsin-Milwaukee head men's basketball coach from 1975-80. His son Doug was born in Milwaukee in 1976. The elder Gottlieb later was an assistant at Long Beach State from 1981-83 and Oregon State from 1983-86. He passed away in 2014.

"It's a family business," Gottlieb said when Patrick asked him if the move had anything to do with his father. "Yeah, there's a legacy element to it as well. In this moment, I'm thinking, ‘God, dad's smiling in heaven right now.'"

It's Not Easy Getting A Head Coaching Job

Gottlieb's brother Gregg Gottlieb is an assistant women's basketball coach at San Diego State.

"You get to this age, and you just say to yourself, ‘What am I doing here?’ I'm creeping up on 50, and I love basketball. I love young men. I love the idea of working at a university. I want to build something special," Doug Gottlieb said. "These jobs are really hard to get. My brother's been in this business for 28 years, and he's really, really good. And he hasn't gotten a head coaching job yet. So, I respect how hard it is to get this."

And he will have to budget his time with the radio gig.

"How do you commit to both on the same day, same time?," Patrick asked.

"I'm the head coach," Gottlieb said. "I get to set the schedule."

Gottlieb said he will have to avoid talking about recruits while on the air. 

"Everyone at Fox Sports Radio has been awesome," he said. "They have the only national radio show host who's also a Division I men's head coach. For Green Bay, it works as a promotional tool, even without mentioning it. I think they're mutual promotional tools."

Patrick read a comment from St. John's coach Rick Pitino on X during Patrick's show.

 OutKick's Dan Dakich also chimed in with a comment in Wisconsin-Green Bay's release of the Gottlieb hire.

"Congratulations UWGB on the best coaching hire of the college basketball off season," he said. "Doug Gottlieb has an unbelievable personality that will quickly make UWGB a force on the national college basketball scene."

So did Michigan State coach Tom Izzo.

"I am so excited when I heard Doug was going to be the next head coach at Green Bay," Izzo said. "He has great passion and love for the game. It's in his blood with his father being a coach himself! Get ready Green Bay, high energy is on the way."

As Patrick wrapped up Gottlieb's appearance, he changed his tone.

"I'm happy for you," he said. "Good luck with it."

He'll need it, and a lot of NIL money to see if he can do more than talk a good game.