The Doug Gottlieb experiment at Green Bay isn’t going particularly well.
That’s putting it mildly.
Even Adam Schefter implored that the Phoenix head coach spend less time on social media — and more time in the gym. Perhaps he didn’t take that advice to heart, recently deleting a post mocking a women’s basketball player after his team suffered another epic collapse.
But as he mocks others, Gottlieb has seen his Green Bay team mocked repeatedly.
That led to the Fox Sports Radio host addressing the negativity surrounding his team on social media on his radio show.
On this episode of IN THE BONUS with Doug Gottlieb: @GottliebShow addresses the negativity he has seen on social media regarding him and his basketball team. Doug reacts to @dpshow‘s take about Stephen A Smith. Plus, YOU’RE ANNOYING with @JasonStewart.https://t.co/Y6wtdAZYuF
— FOX Sports Radio (@FoxSportsRadio) January 31, 2025
“I don’t know if I’ve reached my fill of social media, but I think it’s worthy of a discussion,” he said. “Last night, we’re tied at the half and my team, we lost to Oakland, the Golden Grizzlies. It was our 18th consecutive loss. And it’s really interesting. I love that people are paying attention. You get people who troll you, people who post things that we’ve lost 18 in a row.
“It’s fine that it’s on me. It’s fine. It’s what you sign up for. You’re a head coach in college, people make it about you — and it is. It’s my team. I represent all of us. I do think it’s interesting how nobody seems to want to dig in at all and give any sort of context.”
For context, Gottlieb’s Phoenix are 2-21 and currently 0-12 in Horizon League play.
“I still don’t understand the point,” Gottlieb said as he lamented the negativity on social media. “Like, last night, for example, obviously don’t have Anthony Roy, who was the nation’s leading scorer before injury (Gottlieb benched him in December). He is on track to return later this season. And for the last two games, we haven’t had Marcus Hall. Marcus Hall would be our leading scorer without Anthony Roy — about 13 [points] a game.
“And I know it doesn’t work that way when you don’t have 38 points, right? Just put that man and score 38 points — or maybe you could? But what happens is you start working further and further down the bench. I played nine kids yesterday — six of which are freshmen. And against an Oakland team that has a couple of grown men, they gave up 18 offensive boards. We shot poorly in the second half, had some good looks… and we lost.”
They lost for the 18th consecutive time.
Gottlieb mentioned that Bill Self, now the head coach at Kansas, lost 18 straight games to start his career at Oral Roberts.
“I know there have been plenty of coaches who have had plenty of struggles in their first year,” he says. “And I know that I’ve learned a lot. But, I guess I just wonder, like, at what point is somebody going to go, ‘Yeah, you know, I actually watched the game; I actually thought they were pretty well coached.’ Or, listen, if you watch and you’re like, ‘They’re terribly coached because they don’t do X and Y,’ that’s fine. I just don’t understand the piling on because the record without any sort of context.”
Gottlieb’s cohost, Jason Stewart, informed him that if he wanted credit, neither Twitter nor the blogs would be involved.
“I wouldn’t go to Twitter for any kind of credit,” Stewart told Gottlieb. “Perception is a reality in your business. And that’s what you’re getting when you log on to see feedback about you and your team.”
Stewart’s point hit home for Gottlieb, who shifted his focus to the bigger issue at hand.
“Again, this is what happens when you’re a writer. Honestly, this is what it exposes. It exposes that people who are writers, people who cover sports that haven’t been around a team, honestly, it’s embarrassing how little they know,” Gottlieb says. “I got off the phone with two former head coaches who are now broadcasters… They understand; they get it. And the radio show isn’t even a thing for them because most high-major coaches have a radio show.
“But, I think it exposes how little people understand about one, this level of college basketball; how fragile it is when you lose your top two players… And so what my challenge to these people is, when we start winning, I want a mea culpa from every f*cking one of you. That’s what I want.”