This is the same guy who less than two weeks ago was on ESPN making the argument that Kansas/Missouri is the best rivalry in college basketball, not just this year, but historically. As evidence he offered that the roots of the rivalry go back to the pre-Civil War animosity between the two states.
For many analysts tasked with talking about one topic for a living, the temptation to say something different and clever can lead them to say some bizarrely stupid things. Gottlieb is the poster boy for this problem.
I think this is a huge problem across the media landscape. I actually really like Gottlieb. I think he is smart and knows more about more teams across the land than the majority of announcers. I hate to single out JDubs, but the insight and analysis he provides, to me, is several grades below Gottlieb (same goes for Hubert Davis, Adrian Branch, etc.), and I attribute that to the fact the Gottlieb comes from a coaching family and grew up thinking and analyzing the game.
But, to your point, the modern media landscape has radically changed. A journalist or TV talking head's "brand" value is measured in new terms, such as number social media friends and followers. Vanilla opinions don't generate a following. When it's time for Gottlieb to re-up with ESPN, that following constitutes part of his negotiating leverage. That's not to say you shouldn't say what you believe, but it does seem to pay to be provocative - and Duke is one of the most polarizing and provocative college bball brands out there.
All Doug G, all the time... his own channel!
Last edited by weezie; 02-17-2012 at 08:30 PM.
No real need for this thread as he never "had it". He should be a national spokesperson for Master Charge or Ethics in college sports.
Or Discover Card.
But really it was only the first time he committed a felony type crime so let's forgive him and allow him to make hundreds of thousands of dollars where someone else committing the same crime from a poor upbringing and not able to attend a Notre Dame would most probably have been incarcerated.
Wiki has Gottliebs's academic history. He started at Notre Dame where the credit card misbehavior occurred. Was allowed to resign; attended community college for a while and then transferred to Oklahoma State.
Going into the final four, Singler had a badly sprained right wrist, there was great uncertainty about whether he would play at all, and that if he did, how effective he might be. Stating that Singler's defense (he definitely wasn't going to be shooting the ball) was an unremarkable insight, and it showed no anti Duke bias. As for the job that Sngler diod, it certainly surprised me whe K had Singler guard the much shorter, but highly skilled Butler. It turned out to be the story of the game--Singler didn't let the guy breathe on the outside, and gave him real trouble finishing on the bounce when he tried to take it to the basket not simply against Singler but also against what was clearly the most formidable interior defense in the country. In fact, Butler broke his damn leg trying to maneuver around Zoubek. Singler was good against Haywood, but Haywood contributed by missing a startling number of open looks. So, he has talked about Duke quite alot over the years, who didn't, and his style is to cut a fine line by seeing the game from unique perspectives that get you thinking, that up your game beyond the obvious to take issue with him.
As other sage posters here have pointed out, he undboutedly picked up this style kicking it around with his old man and brother. Bobby Gottlieb was dead set on being a college coach from the time he played freshman ball as a walk-on on an Ohio State team that included Bobby Knight. Bobby got his start in coaching by puttig together a team to play in the Rucker league and getting to know every coach in the New York area. He used to drop around his old high school gym during evenings that summer to kick it around with his old coach, and sometimes take a run with the varsity ballers. He never shot, but by example showed us perspectives on the game that, well, were a step beyond and we had a coach that took the game pretty darn far. His old man has been in and around the college game for about 50 years, and coached at a real high division 1 level;, once did a short stint as a 1-A coach. I have to think that talking ball with his old man growing up was all that he did, I'm not sure tht Bobby did anyuthing else, and that to be aplayer Doug had to come up with some pretty keen and unique insights and defend them on a pretty challenging battleground. Doug and his old man understood how to get ahead in the world of college ball-Doug caused quite a stir when he signed with Notre Dame and the media was watching to see how the Jewish kid would fit in when the season began the next season. I didn't know that Doug had been asked to leave the Dame because of a calling card incident; I knew that he wasn't the star that he apparently thought he would be. He went to play for a coach his old man had worked for years earlier, and he realized his potential. He also became a regular contributer on the Rhome show while still playing for OSU. He undoubtedly learned that novel takes that bespoke keen insight sold in the media. I think it does precisely because it ups the game of everyone listening. Upping people's games seems to run in the family.Sure he often talks about Duke during the college basketball season. Who wouldn't, they've been the story for quite a while now. And, yeah, his style is to walk a fine line and he sometimes crosses it, not just in his takes relating to Duke, whom he often praises, again in an interesting and nuanced fashion. While the other heads were talking about how Rivers almost waited too long, how Zeller sould have had his hands up and been tight to Rivers (ridiculous), or what drama that was played out, Doug was talking about how Rivers had manned up by deciding to take the shot, to take that responsibility on his own shoulders with no thought of giving theball up to someone else. Doug said he had always wished that he had done the same thing when he was in an identical situation years ago, and that it bothered him until this day that he had given it up to a teammate with a wide open shot but missed. There was no better way to give Rivers all respect for the most noteworthy thing about how he performed in those final seconds; keen insight? Generosity of spirit? Come on, calling him a Duke hater is a step too far.
The fact that Doug's remarks about the college game are often focused on Duke is hardly novel--who else has been consistently on the top for the past I don't know how many years, during which I think K has displayed some startling diversity in the way he's had his teams play. If your style is to find the ususal take, sometimes it comes off as a step too far, but I think that the evidence is out there that he is no Duke hater. Relevant to this thread and some of the posts here about his attitude towards Rivers, listen, Doug brought his best game when Rivers did against UNC. While all the heads were looking elsewhere to be controversial, i.e., Rivers almost waited too long, Zeller should have been guarding Rivers much closer with his hands held high (both nonsense, by the way), Doug focused on what was really noteworthy. He said that it was big time that Rivers obviously decided as soon as he got the ball that he was taking the last shot, that he had carried the weight ring the game, and would carry it when it counted the most. Doug then laid it out that he had been in exactly the same position and had given it up when he saw a wide open teammate who ended up missing--Doug said that he still doesn't understand how he did that, showing obvious respect for a guy who played it better.
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I agree with those here who find Gottlieb more knowledgeable and interesting than most all the heads in the media. I usually stop if I encounter him when flipping the channels. If I am not impressed with what he has to say, I move on; most of the time I listen for a while. The guy is good, he is not a cheap shot artist, and I think that his aim is to up people's games, which at least for me he often does. That's why I watch and listen, just like I did a lifetime ago when his old man dropped in.
AndyGlockner: @GottliebShow UW is facing the same bias every mid-major does: "You didn't beat anyone and now you're beating teams that didn't beat anyone"
@GottliebShow: @AndyGlockner except they are not a mid major- have 3 draft picks on their team and worked in a frosh PG
@AndyGlockner: @GottliebShow Last I checked, "Number of NBA draft picks" was not a selection criteria.
<devildeac> anyone playing drinking games by now?
7:49:36<Wander> drink every qb run?
7:49:38<loran16> umm, drink every time asack rushes?
7:49:38<wolfybeard> @devildeac: drink when Asack runs a keeper
7:49:39 PM<CB&B> any time zack runs, drink
Carolina Delenda Est
Did anybody see Gottlieb full court press in the celebrity game on friday? He's such a tool bag, he ripped the ball from some bad rapper and did a lay-up and got excited. Bro, you played D-1 college ball, you're good, you're not supposed to try and dominate a celebrity game. Hardaway should have thrown a tv at him.