Green Bay coach Doug Gottlieb went on a rant in his postgame press conference after his team’s 75-72 loss at Milwaukee on Sunday. In the tirade, which lasted several uncomfortable minutes, Gottlieb slammed his fists on a table and demanded an explanation from the Horizon League after he was assessed a critical technical foul late in the second half in an eventual one-possession loss.
The technical foul came with just under seven minutes remaining in the game and with his Phoenix leading 59-57. Gottlieb defended his actions from the sequence and reported nothing he did was enough to warrant a technical, including refraining from cursing and not leaving his coach’s box.
“I need the league to explain to me why I got a technical foul when I did not curse, I was not demonstrative, I did not leave my box,” Gottlieb reported. “All I reported was, ‘That’s the same play as the other end.’ All we ask is that it’s a fair game. That’s all we ask.”
Gottlieb reported his issue was not only with the technical, but also with the sequence within the game that eventually led to the technical. From his view, he saw two similar plays with two different outcomes — both in favor of the other team — that were officiated differently.
“I need Donnie [Ripley] (the Horizon League’s Coordinator of Officials) and the new commissioner to explain to me the disparity in the officiating,” Gottlieb continued. “You had the exact same play at both ends in the last play of the game. The exact same f****** play. The exact same play. So I need the new commissioner to explain to me what a technical foul is when I don’t leave the box, I don’t curse, I’m not demonstrative. There was nothing that should’ve been called a technical foul.”
Green Bay’s loss snapped a three-game winning streak and dropped it to 10-7 in league play, putting a .500 finish in conference play on the table.
There have been plenty of highs and lows for Green Bay this season — including an infamous chair-tossing incident from Gottlieb after blowing a double-digit lead — but it’s hard to argue anything other than it’s a marked improvement on his first year at the helm of the program. The team finished 4-28 in 2024-25 and at one point endured a 21-game losing streak from late November through mid-February.
Sunday’s loss put Green Bay 2.5 games behind league-leading Wright State with three regular-season games remaining, but it’s not impossible to think this team could sneak into the NCAA Tournament this year as the league’s automatic berth if it wins the Horizon League tourney. Green Bay played Wright State close two weeks ago and defeated Robert Morris on the road in late January.
