Doug Gottlieb’s second season as coach of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball team went far better than his first.
But the work to improve never stops, and it has gotten even more challenging for a mid-major in the era of the NCAA transfer portal.
The roster already has taken a hit this month, and not just with the graduation of starting guards Preston Ruedinger and Justin Allen.
UWGB could suffer another significant loss after sophomore guard and Horizon League all-conference third-team selection C.J. O’Hara entered the portal. Freshman guard Caden Wilkins, who started 22 games this season, also is in the portal.
O’Hara led the team in scoring with 14.1 points per game and turned into an excellent recruiting tool for Gottlieb. He can show potential commits how O’Hara arrived as a walk-on, was developed, and two years later is in line to make significant money at a bigger school.
It’s a good bet O’Hara and Wilkins won’t be the only two that could depart, although all eyes will be on Marcus Hall.
The junior forward has an opportunity to become the first UWGB player to spend his entire career at the school since Kam Hankerson graduated in 2020.
But making more money than the Phoenix can offer in his final opportunity to cash in must be considered despite the ties the former D.C. Everest star has in the state and at UWGB.
If O’Hara, Wilkins and Hall all leave, the Phoenix would have to replace its entire starting five.
Welcome to college basketball.
UWGB is believed to have had one of the lowest budgets in the 11-team Horizon this season, spending about $380,000. The budget is expected to go up for 2026-27, likely between $650,000 to $800,000.
After going 18-15 this season and winning its first Horizon tournament game since 2020, can the Phoenix replicate that success with the potential hits to the roster?
“Talk to me May 1,” Gottlieb said. “If we execute what I want to execute, it may change your mind on how it all looks and what the entirety of the plan is. On some level, it sucks because these guys come in and every one of them is like, ‘Coach, that was the best culture, the best team experience, I have ever been a part of. But guys are leaving, and I won’t get to play with my guys anymore.’ If you didn’t leave, you might not play with the same 15 guys, but at least you will have five, seven, eight of them back as opposed to you going to a new school and everybody is new.
“We haven’t lost a kid from Wisconsin yet, and I do think that as much as it sucks in college basketball that you have a good year and you lose guys because of their success, just like [former guard Anthony Roy who left for Oklahoma State last offseason], we need to celebrate it. If that is what they need to do, if they are going to make substantially more money, I don’t know how anybody can really argue with it.”
Gottlieb talked in September about his vision on how to consistently be successful in the Horizon. That vision continues to include building a fence around the state, to find talent that might not be ready to play at Wisconsin but can play at the DI level.
The first prep recruit he landed after being hired at UWGB was former Kaukauna star Keegan Van Kauwenberg. The Phoenix also will welcome an incoming freshmen class that includes Brookfield Central forward Henry Gruetzmacher and Wauwatosa West guard Matthew Kloskey.
It doesn’t mean players from the state will all stay, but there might be a better chance.
“The other part is, when we get these Wisconsin kids to transfer back in,” Gottlieb said. “Where they go DII, DIII, DI, whatever, and they come back home where they are close to finished products. That still is very much on the table. If it wasn’t for this system, we would have a ton of guys back, and we wouldn’t have space to take all the guys back we want to bring back.
“There are lots of people who last year wouldn’t consider [playing for the Phoenix] and now it’s like we are going to have to turn some of these guys down.”
Where the UWGB coaching staff stands entering the offseason
Gottlieb praised his assistant coaching staff throughout the season. The Phoenix retained Aerick Sanders and Jerry Smith from his first year and brought in Kerry Rupp, Andy Ground and Keil Ganz before the 2025-26 campaign.
It remains to be seen how many return.
Ganz is a candidate to be a head coach at a few DII schools and was extremely valuable to Gottlieb.
Gottlieb has had several conversations with Ground, who is his old high school coach. He was expected to meet with him this week to discuss plans.
It’s the same for Rupp, who has been coaching at the DI level for more than 25 years and came to UWGB after spending time as an assistant at Detroit.
Rupp turned 72 last month, is a grandfather and recently taught a dance class for his daughter. He can do other things than basketball at this point.
“But I also have got to get him more money,” Gottlieb said. “My staff is the lowest paid in the league. It’s all related. If he is going to spend 10 more months away from his family, then I have got to make it worth his while because he works his ass off and is good at what he does.
“Andy helped me stabilize this thing. Andy is like my auditor of everything. We sit at the end of each week and, ‘This worked, this didn’t work.’ He gives me real feedback. You need to do this more, you need to do this less. He’s also kind of my eyes and ears on staff.”
Extension for Doug Gottlieb?
Gottlieb has three years left on the five-year contract he signed when he was hired.
He will earn a gross base salary of $270,000 next season after earning $215,000 his first year and $250,000 his second. He is set to earn $290,000 in his fourth season and $305,000 in his fifth and final year.
Gottlieb said he and UWGB athletic director Josh Moon have “discussed all things” when it comes to his contract status.
“Do I think my salary should be higher? Of course, there is nobody that goes, ‘Nah, I’m good,’” Gottlieb said. “But I can’t tell everybody else only one agenda, which is winning. Our strongest likelihood of winning is if we have as good a staff as we can have and if we have as good of players as we can have.”
It’s up to Gottlieb to make it happen.
“I’m in charge of this one bag of money,” he said. “I want to hire our own strength and conditioning coach, so that comes out of that bag of money. I want to make sure we have a great schedule, one that we can navigate and have more success than this year and spend less money than this year. The Virgin Islands [for a Thanksgiving tournament] cost us a lot of money. And then I want to have better players.
“There is even stuff, we didn’t get the Dick Bennett Gym floor refinished. Why? It’s $50,000. I need that money. There are things we haven’t done that we need to do. When we get to all the end of that, if there is some money left over. … Really, what you need is just guarantees. So that everybody knows that you are in good standing, good shape. If you recruit the right kids and you miss a couple shots and you end up having a disappointing year or whatever, they still have your back. That’s more important than the bottom line of how much money. It’s a long answer, but it’s a real answer. Let me make sure everybody is taken care of, we get our schedule done, Josh and I have super open conversations about it. If we get to the end of it and there is money left over, sure, I’d love to make a little more.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Busy offseason looms for UWGB men’s basketball coach Doug Gottlieb
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
