Doug Gottlieb Demands ‘Mea Culpa' Once Team Wins Again

Notable Big 12 personality and coach Doug Gottlieb has been struggling to start his career as head coach of the Green Bay Phoenix, with the team sitting at 2-21 and 0-12 in league play.

The former Oklahoma State athlete campaigned for years to take over as the Cowboys’ head coach, but when the team moved on from Mike Boynton, Gottlieb was not on the short list of targets.

The move to avoid hiring Gottlieb in Stillwater worked out well in Year One as the Phoenix have been one of the worst teams in college basketball in 2024-25, winning two of their first five games, followed by an 18-game losing streak that included losses to teams like IU Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Division II Michigan Tech.

One stipulation of Gottlieb accepting the head coaching vacancy was that he would be allowed to continue hosting a daily radio show. His recent comments turned heads as the Green Bay head coach ranted and called for forgiveness once his team wins again.

Gottlieb demands a “mea culpa from every f------ one of you” once Green Bay gets into the winner’s circle and then expanded on the support he receives from peers and coaches in the industry.

“Again, this is what happens when you’re a writer,” Gottlieb said. “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. 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,” Gotlieb continued. “And so what my challenge to these people is, when we start winning, I want a mea culpa from every f***ing one of you. That’s what I want.”

Gottlieb finished his thoughts by saying, “I know there have been plenty of coaches who have had plenty of struggles in their first year. 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.”

Regardless of the reason or who’s to blame, Gottlieb and the Phoenix stink right now. Oklahoma State has had a rough first year of its own under Steve Lutz, but if one thing is certain, Chad Weiberg would have received massive backlash if he had planned for Doug Gottlieb to be the future of OSU Athletics.