Doug Gottlieb has always lived and breathed college basketball, whether it was as an intense player or a longtime analyst who was never shy about speaking out on a number of issues relating to the sport he loves.
Now, the 50-year-old has entered another life in college basketball as the head coach at Green Bay, a position he has held since 2024. Just like Gottlieb always wanted the sport to be better when he played it and analyzed it, he now wants college basketball to thrive while he paces the sideline as a head coach in the Horizon League.
Naturally, Gottlieb wants to win games, too, and in that pursuit he just wants the officiating to be as on point as possible. Gottlieb survived his rocky first season as a head coach, which produced just 4 victories and a whopping 28 losses. Things have gotten a lot better for Gottlieb and the Phoenix this season, with a 15-13 overall record and a 10-7 mark in the Horizon.
But Sunday didn’t go particularly well, with Green Bay letting a 6-point halftime lead slip away in a 75-72 league loss at Milwaukee. Sure, the loss itself stung the team and its intense 2nd-year head coach, but it was how it all went down that bothered Gottlieb, who sat down after the setback and went off on the officiating during his postgame press conference with reporters.
“I need the league to explain to me why I got a technical foul,” said Gottlieb, who was just getting started with his epic rant.
“All we ask is that it’s a fair game. I need the commissioner of the league to explain to me the disparity in the officiating. That’s what I need explained to me. I need somebody to explain to me how every time we touch them, it’s a foul,” said Gottlieb, who used some profanity during the press conference and banged his hands on the podium in making his points. “I need the new commissioner of the Horizon League to explain to me what a technical foul is when I don’t leave the (coaching) box, I don’t curse … there’s nothing that should have been called a technical foul. I know when I earn one. I did not earn one.”
Gottlieb didn’t believe he nor his players got a fair shake on Sunday.
“All we ever ask is fair,” Gottlieb said.
Here is Gottlieb’s full postgame rant after Sunday’s brutal defeat:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
