National radio host and beleaguered basketball coach Doug Gottlieb is living a life full of grim men's evenings, based on two well-written profiles published recently. The 49-year-old Gottlieb was hired in May 2024 to coach the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay's men's basketball team, despite no prior college coaching experience. He also continued his daily show at Fox Sports Radio, a delicate arrangement governed by a six-page "conflict management plan" with the school. On certain occasions, such as the Super Bowl, Gottlieb has to travel and prioritize his radio work. Mostly, he holds the Phoenix's practices in the morning, cuts out in the afternoon to bloviate on air, and then gets back to coaching a team that is among the worst in college basketball.
Is it really possible to do both of these jobs at once? Here's how Brian Hamilton of The Athletic characterized Gottlieb's response to that question:
As for the perception that a coach fails unless he’s grinding on tape from dark to dark, Gottlieb counters with this: He’s divorced. He lives alone in a former Vrbo he bought fully furnished so he could move in the same day. His biggest chore is keeping a seven-month-old Sheepadoodle from eating chicken out of the garbage.
Kyle Boone of CBS Sports offers more detail on this sparse abode:
There's a dead walleye mounted on Gottlieb's basement wall. It's the first thing you see as you make your way from the main floor of his home, down the winding stairs into his man cave, which in these parts is as necessary as a warm winter coat. It came with the house.
Some boxes remain unpacked. The only personal items downstairs are a headset and a soundboard sitting on the bar, where he hosts his radio show, and a few half-empty liquor bottles scattered on the back bar.
And on the coach's inner life:
Moreover, Gottlieb is divorced and his kids are in Oklahoma, so right now "there aren't demands on being home for family," he says. He says he uses what would be family time to pour back into his program when they aren't around, and he says it in a way that spills out with a sense of dejection, revealing the emotional tax he's paying of being nearly 1,000 miles away from his twin daughters, Harper and Grace, and his son, Hayes.
"That's the hardest part," Gottlieb said. "It sucks."
Both profiles also offer context for the Phoenix's on-court issues, which include illnesses, injuries, transfer problems, and a lower cap on practice time due to penalties incurred by a previous coach. But forgive me if I was more compelled by the dire details of Gottlieb's personal misfortune. The Northern Kentucky team bus, right after its occupants beat Green Bay 73-60, backed into the coach's Hummer and drove away. (Gottlieb supplied surveillance video, which is embedded in the story.) Twelve hours later, a snow plow hit the coach's car. In January, his Tesla had burned up in the Palisades fire.
Gottlieb doesn't sleep much. He lost to a Division II team he referred to as "Nobody U." LeBron James makes fun of him, probably because the radio host said Bronny James had been treated like a "Make-A-Wish kid." Gottlieb grouses pathetically to the CBS reporter about the Lakers star "punching down." Even the likes of Adam Schefter are attempting to assert dominance.
Late in Boone's article, Gottlieb is seen trying to erase the bad juju with burning sage and ChatGPT:
"OK," he says under his breath, his fingers typing as he talks out his request. "Chant ... for ... good luck ... to ... repeat ... with sage." With a lighter in one hand and his phone in the other, he sets fire to one of the sticks of sage.
"Let all negativity be gone forever," he says in a droning, sober tone. It's a dramatic shift from his bombastic delivery and over-the-top energy he brings to his daily radio show. "Bring love and happiness and protection to this house, and myself."
He repeats it again and again, walking from one side of the court to the other in a circle.
On Thursday, the Phoenix improved to 4-26 with a 76-71 win over Detroit Mercy. They no longer have the worst win percentage in Division I. The tie has been broken: Gottlieb officially has more victories than vehicular mishaps this season.
