All eyes on continuing the rise
For the second straight year, the Green Bay Phoenix men’s basketball team will be flying into another season with a first-year head coach. A season ago, the Phoenix rose from being “the worst team in college basketball”, having been ranked at 362 in the initial NET rankings, and soared with Sundance Wicks leading the team.
Wicks has gone back to Laramie, Wyoming, to coach his hometown team, and Green Bay has hired the man who was the runner up for the job the year before, Fox Sports Radio host, and long-time basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb. While many questions are yet to be answered, a new coach, another almost completely new roster, and the ever- changing world of college hoops, one thing is certain, all eyes are on Green Bay this year.
Many in the basketball world know the name Doug Gottlieb. He had a prolific career with Oklahoma State, having led the nation in assists 2 years in a row, and assists per game as a junior. After his playing career, Gottlieb joined the media, starting with a radio gig in Oklahoma before joining ESPN in 2003. Gottlieb was a prominent voice in college basketball from 2003 onwards, to when he joined CBS Sports and started broadcasting NCAA regular season and tournament games.Gottlieb eventually moved to Fox Sports where he will continue to broadcast his national radio show Monday-Friday while coaching Green Bay.
Gottlieb has coached in stints before, having coached Team USA alongside Bruce Pearl in the 2009 Maccabiah Games and serving as head coach, winning gold in the 2017 games. He also has coached in the AAU circuit for some time.
Some have been skeptical of the move to go to Doug Gottlieb, especially with his intention to continue with the radio show while coaching. Gottlieb has faced this criticism head on, on many occasions, including joining the HoriZone Roundtable podcast, by laying out his plans for a day, and saying working with his team is actually helping him prep for his show, “We have most Sundays off and the guys come over for what we call family dinner, and we’re watching the football games anyway. So we’re doing the prep as a team.” Gottlieb also made mention that it is incredibly helpful to be with the guys, to help gain their perspective on topics.
In addition to Gottlieb, the rest of the coaching staff will be fairly new to Green Bay as well. Green Bay did retain Jordan McCabe from Wicks’ staff, although he was hired after the 2023-24 season came to an end. Basketball fans in the state of Wisconsin may recognize that name, especially in the Fox Valley and Greater Green Bay area, after McCabe had a standout prep career at nearby Kaukauna High School, before going onto play at West Virginia and UNLV. After his playing career, McCabe returned to West Virginia, as an assistant coach last season before coming back home.
Also on staff is Damon Archibald, an incredibly successful assistant coach who has been on multiple NCAA tournament coaching staffs. His resume includes stops with Fresno State, Pepperdine, USC, Iowa State, and New Mexico State, as well as a summer league coach for the 2008 Sacramento Kings.
The team wraps up the staff with Aerick Sanders, who was a key influence on the Kansas City Roos basketball team in the Summit League. Sanders had also coached for UNLV, New Mexico State, and Montana State over the years as well.
While many of last year’s team left in the transfer portal, whether it be initially after the season, or when the coaching change was made, several key pieces did stay in Green Bay. Prolific shooter Foster Wonders is back after averaging just shy of 8 points per game last year and hit the game winner for Green Bay against Youngstown State last year, as is Marcus Hall who averaged 6.4 points per game last year and was named to the Horizon League All-Freshman team last season, and Preston Ruedinger, who scored 8.4 points per game, including a career high 26 points for the Phoenix at Youngstown State a year ago.
Gottlieb gushed over these guys, calling it “paramount” that these guys are still with the program, crediting Wicks for getting “the right guys” in Green Bay. In his interview, Gottlieb said of Ruedinger, “He checks every box, man that kid is awesome. His only flaw is that he is an absolute psychotic Packers fan” jokingly saying “if Jordan Love’s ankle ends up being bad this year and they have a bad year, I just wonder about his mental status if the Pack don’t live up to what he thinks they can be. That’s like his only flaw, is I have never seen a dude like this, hes got the Packer overalls going, he is into every play and every discussion.” Going on, Gottlieb said “Foster Wonders fits what we want to do to a T” and Marcus Hall is “jack of all trades” and expects him to be All League this year.
Mac Wrecke took a redshirt year last season, and decided to stay with Green Bay following a prolific basketball career at Arrowhead High School. Joining him, after keeping his commitment to Green Bay after the departure of Wicks, is Wrecke’s high school teammate Bennett Basich, who comes in as a true freshman after finishing his high school career as a two-time state runner up in Wisconsin, and was All-State First Team, this past year. In addition to the accolades, fans in the Badger state may remember Basich scoring 43 points, as Arrowhead upset the defending state champion De Pere Redbirds, which featured future Wisconsin Badgers guard Zach Kinzinger and other D1 recruits. Green Bay also retained Ryan Wade, who will be playing as a redshirt senior.
Aside from the returning guys, Green Bay may have had one of its most successful recruiting classes to date, definitely one of its most high-profile classes anyway, under Gottlieb. The Phoenix have its highest rated prospect to come in, Jeremiah Johnson, a 4-star true freshman who was previously recruited and committed to Oklahoma State, where Gottlieb served as a consultant/advisor last season. When Johnson committed, I asked him directly, why Green Bay over the Power 5’s (including Florida, Oklahoma State, TCU, Illinois, etc.) and he told me that it was the coaching staff and the vision they had for him.
Green Bay also added former Oklahoma State big man Isaiah Miranda, a 7-1 center who was a 4-star high school recruit before committing to North Carolina State, and then joining Oklahoma State a season later. Miranda averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds while in high school.
Another former Power 5 player coming to Green Bay, is 6-8 sophomore Donovan Santoro, coming from Providence by way of Los Angeles, California. Santoro was a three-star recruit in high school, and it was Sanders who had a connection to Santoro’s dad to watch him work out and bring him to Green Bay. On what he brings to the team, Santoro told Scott Venci of the Green Bay Press-Gazette “Shooting. Scoring. I am always going to play hard, and I’m versatile on both ends of the floor.” He also earns the distinction of being Gottlieb’s first commit.
The Phoenix brought in two international players, the 6-10 Roee Oselka from Israel, and guard Ben Tweedy from Australia. Gottlieb said that Tweedy has the potential to finish his college career with more assists than he did, which ranks 10th all time in NCAA history. Oselka also had some Power 5 eyes on him, visiting Ohio State before choosing Green Bay.
Green Bay brought in several other transfers, Momo Cisse, in a case “Horizon on Horizon crime” adjacent, as Cisse was initially committed to Oakland before playing his freshman year with St. Louis. Anthony Roy comes to Green Bay, after stops with San Francisco, New Mexico State, and most recently NAIA Langston. Muodubem Muonke joins the team from Abilene Christian.
Green Bay rounds out its roster with freshman Caden Wilkens, Brady Fitzgerald, Ayden Goll, and CJ O’Hara.
Outlook
With the world of the transfer portal, trying to predict mid-major basketball can be messy. Another year of roster turnover at Green Bay has put them in the lower parts of many league prediction polls across the basketball spaces on the web. However, Green Bay brings back much of its core from a season ago that finished 3rd in the Horizon League.
Green Bay also brings in one of its highest-rated recruiting classes that it has ever had. With all the talent on the roster, a head coach who has been in the college basketball world for 20 years as an analyst, and a well traveled assistant coaching staff, don’t be surprised if Green Bay is towards the top of the league, and playing in Indianapolis this spring.
