KU Jayhawks will play radio host’s Green Bay team to open hoops season, he says
The Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team will open the 2025-26 season against national radio show host and former Oklahoma State Cowboys guard Doug Gottlieb’s Wisconsin-Green Bay team.
The game is set for Monday, Nov. 3 at Allen Fieldhouse, Gottlieb said. He is entering his second season as Wisconsin-Green Bay’s head coach and made that revelation with reporters at a fundraising event held Tuesday in Wisconsin.
“I guess I’m just too dumb, I always wanted to coach a game there, so what the heck, right?” Gottlieb, who hosts a radio show on Fox Sports, said on an X account video clip from news station WBAY.
“That actually comes from asking the players, ‘Hey guys, if there’s one place you could play on earth, where would it be?’ And they were like, ‘What about Kansas?’”
Gottlieb joked that he “wanted to “dial back our schedule a little bit this year. So I called coach (Bill) Self about six months ago, and at some point he texted me like, ‘Let’s play.’ I think the contract is done. I hope I didn’t jinx it. But we do have the contract.”
KU officials have not confirmed second-year coach Gottlieb’s report. Athletic administration officials don’t comment on specific matchups until contracts are finalized.
Green Bay went 4-28 a year ago. The squad at one point had a 21-game losing streak.
Gottlieb told the Green Bay Press Gazette he will cut back on his radio show duties during the 2024-25 campaign.
“We talked a little last year about do I want to do it on day of games? Do I want to do day before games?” Gottlieb said of hosting the show. “I would think I would probably dial back on day of games. Some of it is for optics, but a little bit of it is you just want to be fresh and resting.
“It’s weird, because game day there is so much nervous energy because there is nothing to do. Now, look, if you haven’t done your homework, sure, I guess. But we are pretty well prepared, and we will be even better prepared next year.”
Gottlieb told the newspaper he will “make smart adjustments” regarding “The Doug Gottlieb Show.”
“Part of it is, I share my nervous energy or my excited energy by doing the radio show,” he said. “I think we just have to be smarter about having time, to just take time, not just to coach but also to just get away. To turn it off.
“I am planning on a trip, and the big challenge is going to be, will I turn my phone off for the trip? Everybody says there is no way I will do it, but I swear I’m going to do it. I don’t know if I will get more than two days. But the phone is going to be off and nobody will find me for a couple days.”
