Doug Gottlieb called a D2 team 'Nobody U' and assumed 20-point win -- then lost

Doug Gottlieb somehow got a Division I coaching job this offseason while keeping his radio gig. The University of Wisconsin – Green Bay voluntarily gave him a five-year contract to lead a basketball program and coach games despite boasting a career record of 0-0 at any level with any position — the extent of his coaching experience was limited to a stint with Team USA in the 2017 Maccabiah Games. The 48-year-old played at Notre Dame and Oklahoma State, then some overseas professionally, but the bulk of his reputation came as the host of The Doug Gottlieb Show — a daily talk show with Fox Sports Radio.

A DI program hiring Gottlieb as head coach was stupid and embarrassing at the time. It was even dumber to allow him to keep his 3-6 p.m. ET radio show while juggling, oh, I dunno, being an active coach who develops and scouts and recruits and everything that comes with being an active coach. Who in the hell came up with this terrible idea?

I say all of this to let you know that the experiment is failing miserably. Shocker, right? Green Bay has started the year 2-11 with losses to Oklahoma State, St. Thomas, Providence, Evansville, Ohio State, Campbell, IU Indy, Cleveland State, Milwaukee, UC Santa Barbara, and most recently, Michigan Tech — a Division II program out of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Let me tell you a little bit about that loss to the Huskies, which came following an 11 a.m. ET tip-off this morning. Leading up to the game, Gottlieb referred to Michigan Tech as “Nobody U” and said he didn’t know what his team learns in 20-point wins like the one he expected against the DII competition.

“These tiers on who to schedule, like — part of the reason I want to play better teams is it’s two degrees outside and it’s snowing,” Gottlieb said. “I don’t really like the idea of Nobody U coming in here. I always say, like, ‘What do we learn from playing a game where you win by 20?’ There is a methodology to it and I’m going to have to adjust moving forward.”

Doug Gottlieb has no idea what he’s talking about. He refers to D2 Michigan Tech as “Nonody U” and implies they’ll win by 20. His shitty 2-10 UWGB team might be in for a rude awakening today at 11 AM when they see the way Tech plays ball the right way. pic.twitter.com/nzrgKdxxEL

— Mike Ashley (@MikeAshley40) December 18, 2024

Would you like to know what happened against Nobody U? He lost. Green Bay took a 33-23 lead into halftime and left with a 72-70 loss — a 49-37 difference in the second half at home. His team shot 41.7 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from three in a loss to a DII opponent.

Did I mention a radio host coached his DI basketball team to a DII loss in a mid-week game that tipped off at 11 AM to move to 2-11 on the season? Do we understand how ridiculously dumb all of this sounds? It’s because it is, especially when you consider he took over a team that won 18 games a season ago.

That comes just days after Gottlieb got DeAndre Jordan-on-Brandon-Knight-level dunked on by ESPN’s Adam Schefter earlier in the week when he threw a shot at Schefty’s reporting on Michael Vick potentially taking the Sacramento State head football coaching job — also a wild update that happens to be like the eighth most interesting news of the week. He’s taking the Norfolk State HC job instead, in case you were curious.

At the time, Schefter said part of the appeal of Sac State for Vick was a $50 million NIL pool with a move to FBS while building a new stadium. Gottlieb’s response?

“Jeezus Shefty, edit what agents tell you… 0.0% chance Sac State has $50m in NIL,” he said.

Then came the haymaker from Schefter.

“The SAC-12 leading the schools NIL efforts already announced it has reached its initial goal of raising $50 million in NIL funds to strengthen the school’s case for an invitation to the PAC-12 or Mountain West conference,” he said. “And Jeezus, Doug. A seven-game losing steak and last place in the Horizon League? Less time on social media and more time in the gym.”

And Jeezus, Doug. A seven-game losing steak and last place in the Horizon League? Less time on social media and more time in the gym. pic.twitter.com/r58Fpwfvb8

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 17, 2024

Make that an eight-game losing streak.

If any other athletic directors are looking for a coach, I’m publicly expressing interest in any and all gigs. I will not, though, be giving up my KSR website duties and I will continue to host the Sources Say Podcast. Also, no promises I will be able to win games or avoid saying dumb things in press conferences.

If Doug can do it, anybody can.