What to know about Doug Gottlieb, national radio host and new UWGB men's basketball coach
Doug Gottlieb, better known as a national radio personality and sports analyst, is now the head coach of the men's basketball team at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
It's his first NCAA head coaching job and, perhaps even more interesting, doesn't necessarily mean the end of his national radio show.
Here's what to know about Gottlieb:
Doug Gottlieb was born in Milwaukee, the son of UW-Milwaukee basketball coach Bob Gottlieb
Gottlieb was born in Milwaukee in 1976, the son of UW-Milwaukee head coach Bob Gottlieb. Bob remained head coach through the 1979-80 season, then became an assistant at Long Beach State and Oregon State. He died in 2014.
Doug Gottlieb went to high school in Tustin, California.
Doug Gottlieb doesn't have any coaching experience in NCAA, but he does have a coaching gold medal
Gottlieb has interviewed for openings at his alma mater, Oklahoma State, and interviewed for the UWGB job last year when it was offered to Sundance Wicks, but he doesn't have any NCAA head-coaching experience.
He was, however, head coach of Team USA in the Maccabi Games, leading the 2017 team to a gold medal and had previously been on the Maccabi staff in 2009 under former UW-Milwaukee head coach Bruce Pearl. The games are held every four years in Israel, welcoming Jewish athletes from around the globe.
Doug Gottlieb admitted to using stolen credit cards in college, which forced him to transfer from Notre Dame
Gottlieb has been open about his actions as a college athlete at Notre Dame, when he used stolen credit cards during his freshman basketball season. He was caught, pled guilty to a Class C misdemeanor and was asked to transfer out of the program. He landed at Golden West College and then got a second chance at Oklahoma State, where he was a regular starter for three seasons.
Doug Gottlieb college stats: One of the NCAA's best ever in assists and played for a Bucks legend
With 947 career assists, he ranks 11th all-time in the NCAA's official record book. He averaged 5.1 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals over his four years of NCAA hoops, with a staggering 7.6 assists per contest.
Gottlieb didn't get drafted into the NBA but played professionally for three years after he completed college basketball in 2000, starting in the United States but eventually playing in Russia, Israel and France. His pro career included a stop with the Oklahoma City Storm of the now-defunct United States Basketball League, where Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was head coach.
'The Doug Gottlieb Show' and other radio and television work
Gottlieb's presence in sports broadcasting has touched most major networks.
He worked at ESPN radio as far back as 2003, co-hosting "GameNight" and filling in on nationally syndicated shows.
He became a fixture on ESPN television airwaves, hosting a show called "The Pulse" and appearing on "SportsCenter." He became a college basketball analyst and often wrote on ESPN.com.
In 2012, he left for CBS Sports, becoming part of the network's TV college basketball coverage and analyzing games as a color commentator for Turner's coverage of the NCAA Tournament, a gig that continued into 2024.
"The Doug Gottlieb Show," often simulcast on TV and radio, began at CBS. In 2017, the show moved to Fox Sports.
Wrote Matt Norlander of CBS Sports upon Gottlieb's hiring by UWGB: "Gottlieb is a well-known and occasionally controversial sports media personality due to his oft-unfiltered opinions, but his reputation as a basketball analyst has long been held in high regard."
Doug Gottlieb was sued for libel in 2022 over a baseball story
In 2022, Gottlieb tweeted that the agent for slugger Freddie Freeman, Casey Close, never informed Freeman of the final offer handed down by Freeman's former team the Atlanta Braves. Freeman had left the Braves to join the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency.
Close and his management group sued Gottlieb in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleging defamation. Gottlieb admitted he got it wrong and apologized. The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed.
Doug Gottlieb has often stirred controversy with his tweets and other opinions
Gottlieb has rankled many with his sports takes over the years.
His tweet about former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, "Retiring cause rehabbing is 'too hard' is the most millennial thing ever #AndrewLuck" garnered harsh pushback from commentator and Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman. That 2019 observation stemmed from Luck announcing his retirement at age 29, citing concerns about his physical and mental health.
Gottlieb opined that the celebration over top football prospect Travis Hunter choosing a historically Black college in Jackson State (then coached by Deion Sanders) instead of a power-five school was misguided and the decision was a "mistake" on Hunter's part. Among those who found that opinion ill-informed was ESPN personality Stan Verrett.
Gottlieb also got into it with Fox Sports colleague Nick Wright in 2022. Wright had said part of the outcry over Name, Image and Likeness in college sports was because Black athletes had historically been taken advantage of by white power brokers, something Gottlieb called a "fake racism take."
ESPN's Jay Williams took issue with Gottlieb's stance that TV ratings in college sports were more about the brand of the school than the individual players, making the need for Name, Image and Likeness money unnecessary.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about Doug Gottlieb, the new UWGB men's basketball coach
