When it was announced that not only would Doug Gottlieb be taking over has the head coach of the Green Bay Phoenix mens basketball program, but that he would continue to do his nationally syndicated radio show as well, it obviously raised a lot of eyebrows across the country.

And with the Phoenix now mired in the longest losing streak in the program’s 56-year history and towards the bottom in almost every national statistical metric, Gottlieb and the Phoenix have unfortunately become a lightning rod of negativity across social media as questions continue to arise on whether the current setup is sustainable.  

“Obviously, that is the reality and social media’s a dark place, there’s a lot of comments on there,” UW-Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon recently said in an interview with WBAY-TV’s Dave Schroeder.  “Doug’s an easy target, he gets that.  That’s what he signed up for. So he’s got to embrace that and he’s strong enough to push through that and not listen to all that noise.”

“But that’s the reality of his other job too,” Moon continued.  “He’s a radio talk show host and he’s got opinions. So it makes him an easy target.”

“But at the end of the day, he’s focused on how do we make our players better, how do we pour into them, make them have a wonderful experience here, and believe in the Green Bay Way really is what it comes down to.”

Moon has faced questions before, even as early as Gottlieb’s introductory press conference, on how the dual roles and time management aspect would work.  As part of his 5-year contract, the school and coach agreed to a 6-page “conflict management plan” which states Gottlieb’s broadcasting work “may not interfere with (his) duties as head basketball coach,” among other things according to Sportico.

However, the athletic director believes his head coach is putting in the time necessary to get this program back on track.

“I’m not concerned about the time, that whole piece there is not the concern.” Moon told WBAY.  “The guy works as many hours as possible.”

“So it’s just a matter of learning some things – he’s clearly learned some stuff this year, he’s got some stuff he’s got to keep working on, keep growing.  But I’m excited about what the future’s going to be in store here.”

Moon was then asked if he would ever ask Gottlieb to give up the radio show and focus on coaching, to which he responded “no, not at this point. No.”

“Those are conversations we’ll have as we move forward here like any of our coaches,” Moon said.  “Obviously he’s in a unique spot where he’s got a well-paying other job, so it’s a very unique situation.  I get the questions on that.”

“But at this time I don’t see that happening.  We’ll evaluate that as we move forward but right now I think it’s fine.”

The Phoenix have now lost 18-straight games but have been showing some signs of life as of late as they continue to battle without their star player Anthony Roy who has been out with an injury since December 14^th. 

For his part, Gottlieb briefly acknowledged the social media “haters”, choosing to take a more big picture view of his program’s current situation following the loss to IU-Indy last week.

“We’re going to fix it, and we’re going to be a good basketball team,” he said in his postgame press conference after the game. “And all the negative haters or whatever, half of them will go ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, I was with you all along.’”

“I’m not going to make some bold proclamation, I told you I’m not leaving here until we win the Horizon League.  And we’ll win the Horizon League.”

“I don’t know how much hair I’ll have at that point in time,” he joked. 

During that press conference, Gottlieb also briefly addressed the criticism of him doing a daily radio show, which airs nationwide weekdays on Fox Sports Radio from 2:00-4:00 PM, including in Northeast Wisconsin on Appleton’s 95.3 FM The Score. 

“[My dad] built his teams, he built his program, I built my AAU program, I’m going to build this program,” he said. “And it’s okay if you don’t believe it.  It’s okay if you go like ‘yeah, well they don’t know what they’re doing and he does a radio show.’”

“Deion [Sanders] does a show, nobody seemed to question them this year when they turned around.  It got really, really quiet. And I’m not Deion, I’m not flossin’.  I’m me.”

The questions are only likely to get louder as the losses continue to pile up, but with a month left in the season there is still time to get things back on track. 

Otherwise, it will likely be a busy off-season with a flurry of roster activity. 

“We’re going to recruit good kids,” Gottlieb said. “The ones that are all-in are going to stay, they’re going to get better.”

“We’re going to get better this year, we’re going to win games this year, and we’re going to do it the right way. We’re going to get better every day.”