Disciplinary issues again came to the fore as Green Bay men’s basketball head coach Doug Gottlieb got suspended for one game. The decision came after the coach lost his cool and ended up criticizing the officials after last Sunday’s loss at Milwaukee.

Gottlieb was quick to apologize for losing his temper and gave out an official apology on his X account, seeking forgiveness. As a result of his anger issues, Doug Gottlieb will now miss Friday’s game at Oakland and then return to coach the final two regular-season games. In his absence, assistant coach Kerry Rupp will take responsibility for the team.

With three regular-season games to play, Green Bay is tied for third place in the Horizon League at 10-7, one-half game behind second-place Oakland, and losing their coach at such an important juncture must definitely sting for the entire team.

The talk radio host-turned-college basketball coach pounded the table during an explosive three-minute postgame rant in which he was caught fretting over three pivotal moments in the game. That included a late technical foul against him.

Now, criticism and being annoyed were fine till Doug Gottlieb decided to throw expletives in the mix, and that didn’t sit well with the officials.

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“You had the exact same play at both ends at the end of the game – the exact same play! The EXACT SAME F*****G PLAY,” Gottlieb said while he slammed his hands on the table hard enough to knock over the microphone in front of him, as he started describing a crucial offensive foul in the game’s closing seconds.

And that is what did him in. Gottlieb even went on to add how official King Whetstone, after calling it a technical foul against his team, tried to avoid him for the rest of the game.

Although coach Doug’s anger made sense as the loss against Milwaukee took away a three-game win streak for Green Bay (15-13, 10-7 Horizon). The momentum that the team was building on got stopped, and Marcus Hall’s 32-point heroics went in vain.

CJ O’Hara ( 10 pts) and Preston Ruedinger (12 pts) also played well, but a minuscule three-point deficit (75-72) was all it took to decide the result of the game.

Now with a game up ahead with 2nd placed Oakland, and the main coach on the sidelines, will Green Bay manage a win?

Will Green Bay Be Able To Find A Way To Defeat Oakland?

The timing couldn’t have been any worse for Green Bay to lose out on their coach, that too, before such a critical game against Oakland. The Golden Grizzlies has already beaten them once convincingly (88-63), and so the pressure is on them to get that much-needed retribution. But will they be able to? That’s the real question.

Green Bay will have to make its way to enemy territory, and that is never an easy task. The two teams, however, have similar statistics when it comes to wins and losses – Green Bay (15-13) and Oakland (14-13).

Under Doug Gottlieb, Oakland focuses more on efficiency (FG% 48.2, 3PT% 36.0) rather than pace, with a negative scoring margin suggesting struggles in close games. The games against Youngstown State, Cleveland, and Robert Morris all show how they have slowed down at crunch moments, which they need to be cautious of before taking on Oakland.

Oakland plays fast and scores more (82.7 PPG), but its defense has been susceptible (82.1 OPP PPG) and that is something that Green Bay can exploit with its efficiency. Oakland is also too reliant on their top scorers Brady Robinson (16.8 ppg) and Isaac Garrett (14.1), and if Green Bay can somehow isolate them and stifle their attacks, it can pose problems for the Golden Grizzlies.

Green Bay’s team looks more uniform scoring-wise, but Marcus Hall does lead the pack with a 14.6 ppg. Both teams seem pretty identical, but it does feel that Oakland has the edge in that encounter.

Interestingly enough, the man who replaces Doug Gottlieb, Kerry Rupp, has more experience as a coach. Rupp has served as a coach in 143 games overall, compared to Gottlieb’s 60 games as a headcoach but the real challenge lies in the fact that Rupp will now have to suddenly readjust to a main coaching role in an away game, and that can be quite challenging. Either way, may the best team be victorious at the Athletics Center O’Rena.