March 12, 2026 • 19 mins
Following a tough season ending loss to Northern Kentucky in the Horizon League Tourney, Coach Gottlieb sits down for his own 2025-26 exit interview and looks back at his 2nd season as Green Bay’s HC, how the Phoenix made the massive leap from 4 to 18 wins, what went into his decision to pass up playing in the College Basketball Invitational, his approach to handling the upcoming portal, how he would resolve the ever increasing player tampering problem and why the media and fans don't appreciate the full scope of CEO duties of DI HC.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, what up. Welcome in.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm Doug Gottlieb and this is I guess All Ball
or Doug Gottlieb Show or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I want to pump this out to you because.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
One of the things I haven't done a good enough
job of, and I'm going to do a better job of,
is doing some whether it's in season, in off season,
real time podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
So here's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Today is Thursday of Championship week, and I'm not going
to go into the machinations of our last game the season,
losing to Northern Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
We can go back and do that.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
At a later date if that interests you, right, because
it is interesting all the things that happen and how
quickly it happens and the decisions that have been made.
But I wanted to let you guys in on how
it really works, right, that's our job. Well, because I
think one of the things that has always bothered me
(01:07):
about college basketball or coaching is how little actual knowledge
the general public has of how it all works. Right,
And I don't think it's the public's issue. I don't
think it's the media's issue. I don't think it's the
(01:28):
coaches issue. But I think there's issues with all three
that leave us in this state. Here's what I mean.
I think people don't know. Like if you're listening to
this and you're a civilian, like, you don't know, and
you assume because you read social media, read regular media,
(01:50):
you think of how your life works, think of what
you've heard of basketball, and so you make assumptions with
those biases brought in. The media doesn't know because one,
they and again remember I have been a media member,
so and I still technically am a media member. If
(02:10):
you're going to do a podcast, well then you're kind
of a member of the media, right, So the media
doesn't know because coaches don't let them in and most
media members I've never played, you know, like hosts play
by play guy, they didn't. They didn't play high level sports, right,
(02:31):
that's the analyst job. So they don't know, and they
carry the biases up. Well, my life was like this,
and I've watched basketball this way, and then the coaches. One,
we're learning as we go because it changes too, it's
different with your level. But three, the biggest thing is
nobody wants to tell anybody shit, right, Why would I
(02:52):
tell you how I'm doing something? Because if I'm doing
it well or doing it differently, you're going to copy
me and steal.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
My idea or two.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
If you aren't doing it well right, then you're kind
of exposing maybe what the holes are and what you
do making sense. So I'm not blaming anybody, but let's
just be honest. There is zero knowledge out there of
how all.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
These things work.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
So, like I said, it's a Thursday, it's championship week.
We lost on Monday, so we gave everybody a couple
of days like cool down, right, we took the bus
back on Actually we lost on Sunday, so we stayed
on Monday in Indianapolisations to Kayla Carrius, who, once again
(03:42):
rising lead coached the year they trailed at halftime, won
another Horizon League Tournament championship. That's back to back to back.
They're awesome, and we'll have her on the pod get
her this week?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Right? Why not?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Anyway, So the way it works, or it leads, the
way it works in our program is you have the
guys a couple of days and we've decided to not
play in the CBI, And I saw there's a the
quote was imagine considering yourself a real basketball program and
turning down the CBI something like that, And I thought
(04:20):
it was funny, Like, look, if you're to ask me
if I would play college basketball on Daytona Beach on
spring break with my boys, you know, one to three games,
I would say, yeah, let's go back up the car.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I'll drive to Florida. But there's more too than that.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Right for our team, it's the least selfish thing I
can do as a coach in not mandating that we
play in the CBI, because the CBI for the most part,
is really for the coaches to get to twenty wins.
That's what it exists. Ask anybody if you want me
(04:57):
to bullshit you and it's like, wow, we gonna end
our season winning a championship. Yeah, that's really cool. But
the reality is we're at eighteen wins and we should
have won twenty during our season based upon how it
played out, and we didn't. And you know, a way
to get a twenty win season. Mark's a hell of
(05:19):
a year when you're at a mid major or a
low major school. He did just is that's a lot
of wits. My point Garden leader Preston Ruinger, in addition
to a bunch of other injuries.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
He hurt his back lifting weights after we.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Beat fort Way, so our practices aren't as good when.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
He's not healthy.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And as a fifth year senior who's our captain, who's
done so much for us, if he doesn't think he
can practice and it's not sure he'll be able to
go if we went to Daytona Beach, it becomes really hard.
And the rest of our guys, you know, some are
really nicked up and worn down, and some of them
are emotionally worn down by you know, not playing and
(06:08):
or if they if they played, losing and being frustrated
by it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So I took a I took an anonymous poll, and.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
By and large, between staff and players, we just didn't
think it was a good idea.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So that's where we landed on it.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And it stinks because when the season is over, it's
it's crazy how long it is. Remember we started June second,
right to get the June second, then get to the
middle of March, and then all of a sudden, somebody's like, hey,
you guys aren't going to play anymore basketball games. It
happens really fast, especially when you have not just the
(06:51):
hope and aspirations, but a realistic thought of hey, we
beleat Northern Kentucky, then we would play Right State.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
We lost to them twice, but we think we figured
some stuff out.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And then if we could get to Detroit or Robert
Morris we've beaten both those teams, we could be playing
in the NCAA tournament. And then we were thinking, well,
you know the numbers are you know, going in look
like we'd be a sixteen. Now it looked like we'd
be a fifteen or fourteen whatever, Maybe we'd be in Dayton.
Let's get this thing going. And then all of a sudden,
you lose. You don't play all that well. The other
(07:23):
team plays in incredible basketball, and you're done. And then
you're like, hey, guys, you want to play one more and.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Like you just don't think it works.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So the first thing is we come to a decision
we're not going to play in the CBI. And I'm
not knocking anybody who plays in the CBI again, personally,
I would love to coach more basketball with this team.
You know, we figured out our team, We figured out
our rotations, how to play big, how to play small,
if we need to shoot better, if we need to rebound, better.
(07:53):
And it would be fun to be able to play
against somebody at a conference that doesn't know every play,
every set, everything that we do and how we do
it right.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That would be great. So what's left? What's next? How
does it work? Well? Today?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
We have exit meetings? How do exit meetings work? At
Green Bay? We have all the analytical and raw data
on players. We have video for each player and we
sit down as a staff with each player and go
through their year, how we think they did, what we
think they can do better, what our thoughts are for
(08:27):
them in the future. Meanwhile, you have to meet as
a staff and decide, Okay, who do we want back and.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Who wants to come back?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And the first thing is, at least at my program,
I'm not begging anybody to stay, just not you know, now,
there's plenty of players we want to have stay.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
We want to continue to build on having.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
A high pretension rate, but we're not going to do
it if we have to sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
In any way the culture that we built.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It doesn't mean that we won't give guys that earn
it raises, doesn't mean that we're not going to continue
to pay guys to keep them. It just means if
your initial thought is this isn't for me, well, there's
no amount of money that's going to change that. There
just isn't you know, if you think that it doesn't
(09:25):
fit you personally, well, whether it's the town, the conference,
my approach, our staff's approach, our offense, our defense, or
maybe you don't see an the right end insight for
you playing time wise, But if you don't want to
be here, there's none that I'm going to do just
(09:47):
straight up. Then there's the financial aspect of and what
you could afford. And I think there is a discussion
that isn't had on TV on radio.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
It's one pot of money, and I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Know if it works this way everywhere at the major level,
but not necessarily this way, and.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The high major it isn't pot of money, and it
is different.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
But when you're thinking about compensating student athletes, something which
is simply the way of the world, you end up
working through it going well, okay, what's my budget? But
your budget is not just determined based upon how much
money you have for the student athlete. It's how much
do you want to pay your staffers, how many staffers
(10:35):
do you want to have do you want to add
an analytics piece, And then it goes hand in hand
with what your schedule looks like, because in order to
spend that money, you have to have that money. And
one of the great things about having a turnaround season
is more people want to donate, which is great, but
there's also the factor of, hey, we want to donate,
(11:00):
but we can make We can make a lot of
money playing by games. So the point is that, yes,
you have a set or close to set budget for
what you're going to compensate your roster with, and you
have to decide are you going to tear it, are
(11:21):
you just gonna pay a couple.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Of guys, how you're gonna do it, what does it
all look like? YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
But that number can go up or down based upon
how many buy games you have, because more by games,
the more money you have. Now, not everybody gets to
spend every dollar of the buy game on their their
basketball roster, on their coaching staff. Some schools make you
split it. Some schools make you split it with the women.
(11:48):
Some schools you get a fraction of it, some schools
you get all of it. Okay, But the point is
that it is all related, Right, Do I want to
spend more money in the ortal or on our current
players than I did last year?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And of course I do, But.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I also know that my staff needs to make more
money and so to do that. Again, it all comes
out at one pot. You can pretend like you're staffing doesn't,
but that's not the reality too. The second part, or
the and how big that pot is is at least
at our place, also partially determined on how much money
(12:27):
you raise and how much money you're.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Raised through your by games.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
The point is that this is a it's a job.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And there's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And I've told you guys before, you're a CEO of
a company as well as a basketball coach. There's a
lot of things that you have to do. Hecky recruiting budget.
Do you play an MTE? But there's also the cost
of all the travel. Can you save some money there,
play more local games. You play more local games, and
you spend less money on travel. Spend less money on travel,
(12:57):
you have more money to spend on coaching, staff, players, facilities.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Anything down.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Like last year we put off restanding our basketball court
because it was fifty thousand dollars. Do we put that
off again. I think the answer is no, but I
could use that fifty thousand dollars for something else.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I think it's fun, but I also think it's interesting.
Something that drives me is how we can continue on budget,
on time, on target, and leave people who invest in
the program feeling good about their investments.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
It's a challenge.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And then you get to the portal and there's been
a lot of discussions about tampering and going to games,
and I heard one Division one coach say, hey, there
was an SEC.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Assistant at our game.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
The first thing is if you see an SEC assistant
at your game, you're allowed to name them.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
They came to your game.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And my guess is that they could only come to
your game if they have a pre existing relationship with
somebody who's playing or coaching in that game. You think
something's nefarious, don't do the This is what happens, I
agree with. I think was the I think it was
Brian Hodson. I think it's the South Florida coach who said,
(14:22):
you know, basically like you know you're gonna if you're
gonna come after my guys, you know while we're in season.
You know you and I are going to have a
problem type deal. I do think it's bullshit guys that
DM players try and build a relationship. There are lotsaers
who I have a relationship with, some from recruiting, some
(14:46):
from coaching against UH, some from my previous life.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Of being in the media.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
And you know, I don't want to congratulatory text to
be taken in the wrong way, or maybe it's taken in.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
The right way.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Of course, you always want to keep that relationship going
in case they hit the portal. Let's not again, let's
not bullshit ourselves. But I do think it's fascinating on
how there are lots of rules that don't make sense.
I do think tampering rules do make sense. And I
think what we have to build in and establish is one.
(15:24):
It's on us as coaches to write in multi year
contracts teck.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Somebody who's under.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Contract, we need to know who they are, and there
needs to be a punishment for it. Absolutely, there should
be with any job, and you have to have a buyout.
All these things are real world business discussions. Now a
transfer where you have to sit out, that's just like
a non compete clause, so that they can be worked
(15:51):
out within contracts that happen in the rest of the world.
You don't have to have employment status to have it,
and you don't have to be part of a union
to have and the tampering stuff they can just wreck
you because what happens is everybody lies about how much
money they're paying players or how much money they got.
It's a lot like European basketball. You know, if you've
ever played in Europe, you know that Greece is usually
(16:14):
the worst example of it. Dudes make half as much
as they say they're going to make, and then they
only actually bring home half of what they were told
they were going to make.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
That makes sense to you.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
But with all the line, you know, you'll hear numbers like, hey,
I was offered three hundred, I was offered four hundred,
and so a kid who's making fifty seventy one hundred
grand thinks that there's three four hundred grand for them
out there. Then they get out there and they leave
their current school to go to a new school or
to put themselves in the market. The market becomes flooded
(16:48):
with transfers, and you know, the supply outnumbers that demand,
and those numbers shoot down Meanwhile, the school that they
left doesn't mean you're bitter. But if a kid goes
to the poor you have to assume that he's leading,
and he may end up leaving for the same amount
of money that you were going to offer him, and
then he's got to build a whole new role, a
(17:09):
whole new reputation and figure some things out.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I think what there should be.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
One multi year contracts, and then two no contact periods,
and then three once you get the contact periods only
come after you get your own negotiating.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Period with your current roster. The last thing is the
negotiations do work both ways.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
The reality is when you have a job, no matter
how much you love these kids as young men, your livelihood,
your assistance livelihood, your athletic director's livelihood.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Depends upon your competitiveness as a team.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
And you can love a kid, but you can still
find a way to get him to move on to
the portal because there's just a limited number of roster spots,
and if you don't, if you fill them with guys
that can't play, or don't work that hard, or aren't improving,
(18:10):
or they're a redundancy where they're not going to play,
you end up clogging up your roster and you can't
develop and build a program you want to build.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So that's my day, Ah.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That's my day is meeting with the players, meeting with
the staff, figure out who we want to keep, who
we want to let get in the portal, and then
find out how much of that matches with the players,
because again, they don't want to be here, They're not
going to be here, and we can't make them stay here.
Same thing happens with the coaching staff. So it's a
(18:45):
fascinating process and I continue to go headlong into the
wind and enjoy it thoroughly. I'll talk more about championship week,
more about our experience, more about the teams in the
NCAA tournament, but I just this one to give you
a snapshot of what I would say two hundred coaches
or so are going through this week after they lose
(19:07):
their final game.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I'm Doug Gottlieb. This is all ball
Hey, what up. Welcome in.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm Doug Gottlieb and this is I guess All Ball
or Doug Gottlieb Show or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I want to pump this out to you because.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
One of the things I haven't done a good enough
job of, and I'm going to do a better job of,
is doing some whether it's in season, in off season,
real time podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
So here's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Today is Thursday of Championship week, and I'm not going
to go into the machinations of our last game the season,
losing to Northern Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
We can go back and do that.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
At a later date if that interests you, right, because
it is interesting all the things that happen and how
quickly it happens and the decisions that have been made.
But I wanted to let you guys in on how
it really works, right, that's our job. Well, because I
think one of the things that has always bothered me
(01:07):
about college basketball or coaching is how little actual knowledge
the general public has of how it all works. Right,
And I don't think it's the public's issue. I don't
think it's the media's issue. I don't think it's the
(01:28):
coaches issue. But I think there's issues with all three
that leave us in this state. Here's what I mean.
I think people don't know. Like if you're listening to
this and you're a civilian, like, you don't know, and
you assume because you read social media, read regular media,
(01:50):
you think of how your life works, think of what
you've heard of basketball, and so you make assumptions with
those biases brought in. The media doesn't know because one,
they and again remember I have been a media member,
so and I still technically am a media member. If
(02:10):
you're going to do a podcast, well then you're kind
of a member of the media, right, So the media
doesn't know because coaches don't let them in and most
media members I've never played, you know, like hosts play
by play guy, they didn't. They didn't play high level sports, right,
(02:31):
that's the analyst job. So they don't know, and they
carry the biases up. Well, my life was like this,
and I've watched basketball this way, and then the coaches. One,
we're learning as we go because it changes too, it's
different with your level. But three, the biggest thing is
nobody wants to tell anybody shit, right, Why would I
(02:52):
tell you how I'm doing something? Because if I'm doing
it well or doing it differently, you're going to copy
me and steal.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
My idea or two.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
If you aren't doing it well right, then you're kind
of exposing maybe what the holes are and what you
do making sense. So I'm not blaming anybody, but let's
just be honest. There is zero knowledge out there of
how all.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
These things work.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
So, like I said, it's a Thursday, it's championship week.
We lost on Monday, so we gave everybody a couple
of days like cool down, right, we took the bus
back on Actually we lost on Sunday, so we stayed
on Monday in Indianapolisations to Kayla Carrius, who, once again
(03:42):
rising lead coached the year they trailed at halftime, won
another Horizon League Tournament championship. That's back to back to back.
They're awesome, and we'll have her on the pod get
her this week?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Right? Why not?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Anyway, So the way it works, or it leads, the
way it works in our program is you have the
guys a couple of days and we've decided to not
play in the CBI, And I saw there's a the
quote was imagine considering yourself a real basketball program and
turning down the CBI something like that, And I thought
(04:20):
it was funny, Like, look, if you're to ask me
if I would play college basketball on Daytona Beach on
spring break with my boys, you know, one to three games,
I would say, yeah, let's go back up the car.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I'll drive to Florida. But there's more too than that.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Right for our team, it's the least selfish thing I
can do as a coach in not mandating that we
play in the CBI, because the CBI for the most part,
is really for the coaches to get to twenty wins.
That's what it exists. Ask anybody if you want me
(04:57):
to bullshit you and it's like, wow, we gonna end
our season winning a championship. Yeah, that's really cool. But
the reality is we're at eighteen wins and we should
have won twenty during our season based upon how it
played out, and we didn't. And you know, a way
to get a twenty win season. Mark's a hell of
(05:19):
a year when you're at a mid major or a
low major school. He did just is that's a lot
of wits. My point Garden leader Preston Ruinger, in addition
to a bunch of other injuries.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
He hurt his back lifting weights after we.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Beat fort Way, so our practices aren't as good when.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
He's not healthy.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And as a fifth year senior who's our captain, who's
done so much for us, if he doesn't think he
can practice and it's not sure he'll be able to
go if we went to Daytona Beach, it becomes really hard.
And the rest of our guys, you know, some are
really nicked up and worn down, and some of them
are emotionally worn down by you know, not playing and
(06:08):
or if they if they played, losing and being frustrated
by it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So I took a I took an anonymous poll, and.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
By and large, between staff and players, we just didn't
think it was a good idea.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So that's where we landed on it.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And it stinks because when the season is over, it's
it's crazy how long it is. Remember we started June second,
right to get the June second, then get to the
middle of March, and then all of a sudden, somebody's like, hey,
you guys aren't going to play anymore basketball games. It
happens really fast, especially when you have not just the
(06:51):
hope and aspirations, but a realistic thought of hey, we
beleat Northern Kentucky, then we would play Right State.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
We lost to them twice, but we think we figured
some stuff out.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And then if we could get to Detroit or Robert
Morris we've beaten both those teams, we could be playing
in the NCAA tournament. And then we were thinking, well,
you know the numbers are you know, going in look
like we'd be a sixteen. Now it looked like we'd
be a fifteen or fourteen whatever, Maybe we'd be in Dayton.
Let's get this thing going. And then all of a sudden,
you lose. You don't play all that well. The other
(07:23):
team plays in incredible basketball, and you're done. And then
you're like, hey, guys, you want to play one more and.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Like you just don't think it works.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So the first thing is we come to a decision
we're not going to play in the CBI. And I'm
not knocking anybody who plays in the CBI again, personally,
I would love to coach more basketball with this team.
You know, we figured out our team, We figured out
our rotations, how to play big, how to play small,
if we need to shoot better, if we need to rebound, better.
(07:53):
And it would be fun to be able to play
against somebody at a conference that doesn't know every play,
every set, everything that we do and how we do
it right.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That would be great. So what's left? What's next? How
does it work? Well? Today?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
We have exit meetings? How do exit meetings work? At
Green Bay? We have all the analytical and raw data
on players. We have video for each player and we
sit down as a staff with each player and go
through their year, how we think they did, what we
think they can do better, what our thoughts are for
(08:27):
them in the future. Meanwhile, you have to meet as
a staff and decide, Okay, who do we want back and.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Who wants to come back?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And the first thing is, at least at my program,
I'm not begging anybody to stay, just not you know, now,
there's plenty of players we want to have stay.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
We want to continue to build on having.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
A high pretension rate, but we're not going to do
it if we have to sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
In any way the culture that we built.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It doesn't mean that we won't give guys that earn
it raises, doesn't mean that we're not going to continue
to pay guys to keep them. It just means if
your initial thought is this isn't for me, well, there's
no amount of money that's going to change that. There
just isn't you know, if you think that it doesn't
(09:25):
fit you personally, well, whether it's the town, the conference,
my approach, our staff's approach, our offense, our defense, or
maybe you don't see an the right end insight for
you playing time wise, But if you don't want to
be here, there's none that I'm going to do just
(09:47):
straight up. Then there's the financial aspect of and what
you could afford. And I think there is a discussion
that isn't had on TV on radio.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
It's one pot of money, and I don't.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Know if it works this way everywhere at the major level,
but not necessarily this way, and.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The high major it isn't pot of money, and it
is different.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
But when you're thinking about compensating student athletes, something which
is simply the way of the world, you end up
working through it going well, okay, what's my budget? But
your budget is not just determined based upon how much
money you have for the student athlete. It's how much
do you want to pay your staffers, how many staffers
(10:35):
do you want to have do you want to add
an analytics piece, And then it goes hand in hand
with what your schedule looks like, because in order to
spend that money, you have to have that money. And
one of the great things about having a turnaround season
is more people want to donate, which is great, but
there's also the factor of, hey, we want to donate,
(11:00):
but we can make We can make a lot of
money playing by games. So the point is that, yes,
you have a set or close to set budget for
what you're going to compensate your roster with, and you
have to decide are you going to tear it, are
(11:21):
you just gonna pay a couple.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Of guys, how you're gonna do it, what does it
all look like? YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
But that number can go up or down based upon
how many buy games you have, because more by games,
the more money you have. Now, not everybody gets to
spend every dollar of the buy game on their their
basketball roster, on their coaching staff. Some schools make you
split it. Some schools make you split it with the women.
(11:48):
Some schools you get a fraction of it, some schools
you get all of it. Okay, But the point is
that it is all related, Right, Do I want to
spend more money in the ortal or on our current
players than I did last year?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And of course I do, But.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I also know that my staff needs to make more
money and so to do that. Again, it all comes
out at one pot. You can pretend like you're staffing doesn't,
but that's not the reality too. The second part, or
the and how big that pot is is at least
at our place, also partially determined on how much money
(12:27):
you raise and how much money you're.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Raised through your by games.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
The point is that this is a it's a job.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And there's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And I've told you guys before, you're a CEO of
a company as well as a basketball coach. There's a
lot of things that you have to do. Hecky recruiting budget.
Do you play an MTE? But there's also the cost
of all the travel. Can you save some money there,
play more local games. You play more local games, and
you spend less money on travel. Spend less money on travel,
(12:57):
you have more money to spend on coaching, staff, players, facilities.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Anything down.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Like last year we put off restanding our basketball court
because it was fifty thousand dollars. Do we put that
off again. I think the answer is no, but I
could use that fifty thousand dollars for something else.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I think it's fun, but I also think it's interesting.
Something that drives me is how we can continue on budget,
on time, on target, and leave people who invest in
the program feeling good about their investments.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
It's a challenge.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And then you get to the portal and there's been
a lot of discussions about tampering and going to games,
and I heard one Division one coach say, hey, there
was an SEC.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Assistant at our game.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
The first thing is if you see an SEC assistant
at your game, you're allowed to name them.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
They came to your game.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And my guess is that they could only come to
your game if they have a pre existing relationship with
somebody who's playing or coaching in that game. You think
something's nefarious, don't do the This is what happens, I
agree with. I think was the I think it was
Brian Hodson. I think it's the South Florida coach who said,
(14:22):
you know, basically like you know you're gonna if you're
gonna come after my guys, you know while we're in season.
You know you and I are going to have a
problem type deal. I do think it's bullshit guys that
DM players try and build a relationship. There are lotsaers
who I have a relationship with, some from recruiting, some
(14:46):
from coaching against UH, some from my previous life.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Of being in the media.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
And you know, I don't want to congratulatory text to
be taken in the wrong way, or maybe it's taken in.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
The right way.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Of course, you always want to keep that relationship going
in case they hit the portal. Let's not again, let's
not bullshit ourselves. But I do think it's fascinating on
how there are lots of rules that don't make sense.
I do think tampering rules do make sense. And I
think what we have to build in and establish is one.
(15:24):
It's on us as coaches to write in multi year
contracts teck.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Somebody who's under.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Contract, we need to know who they are, and there
needs to be a punishment for it. Absolutely, there should
be with any job, and you have to have a buyout.
All these things are real world business discussions. Now a
transfer where you have to sit out, that's just like
a non compete clause, so that they can be worked
(15:51):
out within contracts that happen in the rest of the world.
You don't have to have employment status to have it,
and you don't have to be part of a union
to have and the tampering stuff they can just wreck
you because what happens is everybody lies about how much
money they're paying players or how much money they got.
It's a lot like European basketball. You know, if you've
ever played in Europe, you know that Greece is usually
(16:14):
the worst example of it. Dudes make half as much
as they say they're going to make, and then they
only actually bring home half of what they were told
they were going to make.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
That makes sense to you.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
But with all the line, you know, you'll hear numbers like, hey,
I was offered three hundred, I was offered four hundred,
and so a kid who's making fifty seventy one hundred
grand thinks that there's three four hundred grand for them
out there. Then they get out there and they leave
their current school to go to a new school or
to put themselves in the market. The market becomes flooded
(16:48):
with transfers, and you know, the supply outnumbers that demand,
and those numbers shoot down Meanwhile, the school that they
left doesn't mean you're bitter. But if a kid goes
to the poor you have to assume that he's leading,
and he may end up leaving for the same amount
of money that you were going to offer him, and
then he's got to build a whole new role, a
(17:09):
whole new reputation and figure some things out.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I think what there should be.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
One multi year contracts, and then two no contact periods,
and then three once you get the contact periods only
come after you get your own negotiating.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Period with your current roster. The last thing is the
negotiations do work both ways.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
The reality is when you have a job, no matter
how much you love these kids as young men, your livelihood,
your assistance livelihood, your athletic director's livelihood.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Depends upon your competitiveness as a team.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
And you can love a kid, but you can still
find a way to get him to move on to
the portal because there's just a limited number of roster spots,
and if you don't, if you fill them with guys
that can't play, or don't work that hard, or aren't improving,
(18:10):
or they're a redundancy where they're not going to play,
you end up clogging up your roster and you can't
develop and build a program you want to build.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So that's my day, Ah.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That's my day is meeting with the players, meeting with
the staff, figure out who we want to keep, who
we want to let get in the portal, and then
find out how much of that matches with the players,
because again, they don't want to be here, They're not
going to be here, and we can't make them stay here.
Same thing happens with the coaching staff. So it's a
(18:45):
fascinating process and I continue to go headlong into the
wind and enjoy it thoroughly. I'll talk more about championship week,
more about our experience, more about the teams in the
NCAA tournament, but I just this one to give you
a snapshot of what I would say two hundred coaches
or so are going through this week after they lose
(19:07):
their final game.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I'm Doug Gottlieb. This is all ball
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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