Gottlieb on the OSU Family, and Why Hiring Him Makes Sense

Mike Holder’s next hire as the men’s basketball coach at Oklahoma State is likely multiple days (not hours or minutes) away, and nobody knows who it’s going to be. I’ve made my desires (probably too) well known over the last year. I would love to see Doug Gottlieb get the job.

I think there is a sense among some Oklahoma State fans that I’m the Kellyanne Conway for Doug’s campaign nationally. That’s fine. I don’t really care. I’m simply writing about who I think would be the best fit at the perfect time for a team I’ve followed my entire life.

The logic on both sides of the Gottlieb train is reasonable, and I thought Kyle Boone did a good job sharing his thoughts yesterday. He’s on the other side of it. That’s a good thing. Disagreement stirs up good discussion. There is not enough of that among friends and co-workers these days. But that’s another post for another time.

The case for Gottlieb is straightforward. He’s a salesmen. He’s selling something he loves. He’s organized and disciplined. He played under Eddie. He’s a junkie. A lifer. An addict when it comes to hoops news and philosophies. He studies it, inhales it and drops it on anyone that will listen to him.

It’s not unlike what Steve Kerr did for several years as an analyst for TNT or what he learned working as a front office executive in the NBA. You listen to him on the Bill Simmons podcast or wherever and you’re like, “Yeah, that dude is smart. He understands people. He gets it. He’ll crush.”

And he has. Of course, he also has three of the 10 best shooters in the history of our existence on this planet, but he’s been objectively spectacular in that role. Zero experience.

If you can’t see how life skills in other arenas are translatable to coaching college sports, then I understand that, but I challenge you to not dismiss it out of hand. I wrote this last year, but when I was hired at CBS Sports I had never covered golf before. I didn’t know the difference between a Rafael Cabrera-Bello and a Tyrrell Hatton. I couldn’t name 10 golf courses in the United States.

But if you have skills that translate — discipline, social awareness and an aptitude for learning — you figure it out as you go. It’s been four years now. I’m not saying I’m the best in the world at it, but it’s been a pretty great ride, and I think it’s been pretty successful.

So yeah, maybe toiling away as the assistant coach for Lamar for three years makes Gottlieb 10 percent more qualified to coach at Oklahoma State, but that doesn’t help OSU in the present day.

Gottlieb cast a fun vision on our podcast the other day about what could be in Stillwater.

“I’ve told people, ‘Close your eyes and think of this as a possibility where we line up and I’m the coach. You look and there’s Josh who coaches baseball. Coach Smith and wrestling. Gundy and his beautiful mullet there as well. They’re all alums.’

“When you go to a parent or a mentor and say, ‘I know I’m telling you a story about a university,’ but when all of these men turned down other opportunities to stay at a place or to come to a place, that says something about the place and says something about the people that are there. It all makes sense and fits. When I said what Brad experienced or what he was able to do was a fraction of it, I mean it.

“This probably stings a lot of people to where they’re like, ‘Man, I was really in last year, and now I don’t can I ever really …’ it’s like when you cheat on a woman. When you cheat on a woman, you can go to therapy and you can say, ‘Honey, baby I’ll change,’ but in the back of her mind she’s like, ‘Am I ever going to trust this guy ever again?’ That’s kind of where Oklahoma State fans are right now.”

This is true.

“How I’ve made it in this business is I’m somebody who always says what I’m thinking, and it’s sometimes to my detriment, but it’s from a place of honesty. So when I say, I want it for the right reasons. I want to be a part of changing kids’ lives. of making Gallagher-Iba what it was at the end of the season for the entirety of the season. I don’t want them one-and-done in the NCAA tournament. I want several and done. Or who knows, maybe live the impossible dream of winning six.

“If you could hire Steve Kerr would you do it? If you could hire Fred Hoiberg would do it? If you could hire Chris Mullin would you do it? So why wouldn’t you afford me that opportunity because of all of these previously listed reasons?”

The idea of Gundy, Holliday, Smith and Gottlieb all coaching in Stillwater at the same time makes me weak. Does it feel a little hokey that OSU is the one school that craves alums to come back to coach? Maybe.

But it’s also a shortcut to success. Think about it, if Oklahoma State had hired anyone but Mike Gundy in 2005, and seen the success that OSU has seen, that person would be coaching Florida or Michigan right now — 100 percent of the time.

Upside

Doug: wins. Stays forever
Other guy: wins…leaves for more $

Downside:
Doug: Gets fired
Other guy: Gets fired

See the diff?

— Wants To Move To Denver (@Pokelahoma) March 22, 2017

You want short-term success, go hire the next Underwood. That’s fine. It’s not wrong. But it’s not sustainable. You want short-term failure, you can find that anywhere (including with Gottlieb). But if you want to set yourself up for GIA to rock for the next 15 years, well, there’s likely only one guy to put on your sideline.