It’s been nearly two years since Doug Gottlieb started his coaching journey with the Green Bay Phoenix, leaving behind a legendary broadcasting career. But Gottlied is still putting out nuanced takes on basketball.
Gottlieb’s team has been on a rough stretch recently, suffering back-to-back losses against Cleveland and Wright State. They are set to play the Northern Kentucky Norse later today and hope to break the losing streak.
The Phoenix are ranked fourth in the Horizon right now with a 12-12 overall record. The losses have affected their rankings, and during a press conference on Tuesday, Gottlieb went on a passionate rant against the industry-standard KenPom ratings for college basketball.
“Let me help you out with a little soundbite here, KenPom is bullsh*t,” he said. “Because it takes into account how much you lose by. And it has no context for who you have, who the other team has. So, in our league, KenPom gives you benefits because Oakland plays like seven buy games.”
“And so if you get close in those buy games and those teams you play in a buy game have great years, your numbers go up. So we get dinged,” he said.
Gottlieb stated that “buy games”, which are matchups between smaller programs and Power 4 teams that help the mid-majors make nearly six figures when they travel to play any of the Power 4 teams, disrupt their rankings.
It’s almost a win-win situation. Power 4 teams get to keep their tracks clean by registering considerably easier wins, and the smaller teams get to face tough competition and make good money. Even though they end up losing, they make the most of that opportunity. As per Gottlied, KenPom overvalues teams that lose these buy games by smaller margins.
Doug Gottlied Believes Green Bay is Better than They Get Credit For
Gottlieb’s biggest problem with the rankings is that it doesn’t take the full context into account while handing out places. There’s more that goes on in every game than what they refer to while making those decisions.
In his opinion, the Green Bay Phoenix is a very good team with the potential to go toe to toe against anyone. But they don’t get credit or recognition for it.
“I would challenge that if our league gets a 14 or a 15 (seed), or if we win in it, we’re going to get a 16 (seed) and we’ll be in Dayton, that’s fine. We’re way better than the other 16-seeds,” Gottlieb said.
The coach believes that everyone is aware of this reality, but since the rankings don’t reflect that, it goes unnoticed.
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