A big question around Doug Gottlieb’s unusual dual duty as a Fox Sports Radio host and the head coach of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix men’s basketball team is if Gottlieb’s other job (involving 15 hours of on-air hosting Monday-Friday) leaves him enough time for the details of coaching. Well, Gottlieb showed a remarkable interest in one particular detail Saturday ahead of the Phoenix’s road game against the Cleveland State Vikings, taking out a ladder and a tape measure to see just how high a rim was:
Apparently @GottliebShow doesn’t like the height of the rims here in Cleveland pic.twitter.com/dLfw7xyXHo
— Jon (@pronkville08) January 25, 2025
Rim-measuring is often mentioned in sports, especially around the Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) speech in Hoosiers that the rims (and other dimensions) are the same at Indianapolis’ Butler Fieldhouse as in his high school team’s own gym:
But it’s highly unusual to see literal rim-measuring, especially from the head coach himself. And that prompted a lot of criticism for Gottlieb, especially considering his team’s wider struggles:
Green Bay men’s basketball has lost 16 games in a row and head coach Doug Gottlieb is worried about the rims 😭
— GoldBoys.com (@GoldBoysSupport) January 25, 2025
Doug Gottlieb becomes even more of a clown with each passing day. https://t.co/dIGp8jMhsw
— The Silent Assassin (@SilentAssassinM) January 25, 2025
Doug Gottlieb is the gift that keeps on giving. From losing 18 in a row, to calling opponents Nobody U and then losing to said opponent and now measuring rims. Doug, thank you for the entertainment!
— . (@kingofswae) January 25, 2025
To Gottlieb’s credit, though, his rim-measuring did prompt an official change to the one basket’s height:
Just a heads up the @gbphoenixmbb game will start at 2:09. Slight delay as they had to adjust one of the baskets in Cleveland. I’ll have the call in the Mixlr app.
— Brian Kuklinski (@brian_kuklinski) January 25, 2025
But that did not help the Phoenix, who lost this one 81-66. That was their 17th-straight defeat, and it will certainly add to the questions about Gottlieb working these two jobs. As Rodger Sherman noted in a thorough takedown last week, when UW-Green Bay was 2-16 (they’re now 2-20), there are extremely limited head coaching opportunities at the DI level, and it’s quite something to give one to someone who not only has very little serious coaching experience, but also works another prominent job for at least 15 hours a week. (That’s what’s outlined in Gottlieb’s contract, but suggests he does no preparation for his radio role, interesting considering how much he says publicly about others’ preparation.)
And Gottlieb has provoked plenty of further questions with his team’s record and his own behavior. This is a team that was 18-14 last season, and that has fallen off a complete cliff with him at the helm. And Gottlieb himself has taken fire this year for everything from benching the nation’s leading scorer to social media beefs with Adam Schefter to X posts mocking women’s basketball players to controversial takes on NFL officiating. While he may not have been fully wrong with his rim complaint here, considering that the basket was adjusted afterwards, his move to do this brought even more focus on him.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.