The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball team is heading to Indianapolis as one of five Horizon League teams still competing for an NCAA Tournament berth. It’s been quite a turnaround for the program and coach Doug Gottlieb.
Gottlieb, a high-profile hire who continued his national sports-talk radio show for his first season with the program last year – he stepped away midway through this season – has led the Phoenix to an 18-14 record, 12-8 in the Horizon League, and a 64-56 win over Purdue Fort Wayne at the Kress Center on Monday, March 3.
That victory gave the Phoenix their first Horizon League Tournament win since 2020 and sent them to the expanded semifinals in Indianapolis, all coming one year after they finished 4-28.
After the win, Gottlieb grabbed a microphone and gave an emotional address to the crowd.
“If you want to build something special, it’s all right here in this room. It’s all right here,” Gottlieb said, not long before students swarmed him with chants of “Doug!”
“Get in your Subarus, get in your Ford truck, GMCs, whatever and get to Indianapolis, because we’re coming back with a trophy,” Gottlieb said. “We appreciate you, but we’re not done yet. Thanks so much.”
Gottlieb also encouraged the crowd to come back for the top-seeded UWGB women’s team, playing in the same venue in a Horizon tourney clash against Detroit Mercy at 7 p.m. CT on Tuesday, March 4. The women’s team is searching for a third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The Horizon has adopted an unusual format where the two lowest-seeded remaining teams meet in a game March 8 in Indianapolis, with the winner and the remaining three top seeds re-seeded into a semifinals that begin at 11 a.m. CT March 9 (for women’s games) and 6 p.m. CT (men), all at the Corteva Coliseum. For the men, that mini play-in game would take place at 2:30 p.m. CT.
Fifth-seeded UWGB would need two of the remaining four Horizon Tournament on-campus games to end in upset to avoid that March 8 game and advance directly to March 9. Those games include Milwaukee, seeded eighth, facing third-seeded Detroit at 6 p.m. CT March 4.
After the victory over Purdue Fort Wayne, social media had praise for Gottlieb and the Phoenix, too:
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Emotional Doug Gottlieb celebrates UWGB win in Horizon tournament
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
