Douglas Mitchell Gottlieb (born January 15, 1976) is an American basketball analyst and sports talk radio host. He played both NCAA collegiate basketball, twice leading the nation in assists and professional basketball (including USBL, leading the league in assists). He now works for Fox Sports, Pac-12 Network and CBS Sports after tenures with ESPN.
College basketball career
After signing a national letter of intent with Notre Dame, Gottlieb was their starting point guard during the 1995–96 college basketball season, starting all but the first four games and leading the team with 154 assists as well as steals and minutes played. Gottlieb was widely known at this time for his efficient ball-handling skills. He left Notre Dame after an incident in which he stole a classmate's credit card and used it to charge multiple purchases. Gottlieb transferred from the Notre Dame program as a result of the incident.
Gottlieb transferred to Golden West College (GWC), where he received an Associate of Arts in business. Despite offers from Cincinnati, Alabama, and others to transfer and sit out a season on their campus, Gottlieb chose to sit out his transfer year at Golden West College. GWC was coached by his former Tustin coach Tom McCluskey, and Gottlieb took on the role of redshirt player/coach. He practiced with the team and traveled to road games as the assistant coach. In addition, Gottlieb was a volunteer assistant at his high school, under Andy Ground. In one game at Santa Ana Valley, Ground was ejected, and Gottlieb coached the team to an overtime loss.
Gottlieb was perceived to be waiting on Baron Davis to choose a school, as UCLA and Georgia Tech both indicated that Gottlieb was their second choice, after Davis. After Davis chose UCLA, where Gottlieb's family had season tickets for 20 years and his brother and sister were alums (sister was captain of the cheer squad), Gottlieb looked elsewhere to play college ball. His final schools were Marquette, Georgia Tech, Alabama, Oklahoma State, Utah, Oregon, and Tennessee. In 1997, Gottlieb accepted an offer from Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton (under whom Gottlieb's father had once been assistant coach) to attend the university. He immediately took over as point guard for an Oklahoma State team that had gone 17–15 in consecutive years, and led the Cowboys to the NCAA tournament.
During his second year with Oklahoma State, Gottlieb led the NCAA in assists, with 299, and also led the nation in assists per game, with 8.8, only the second Cowboy to lead the nation in a statistical category. He also started setting Oklahoma State assist records, breaking the school career mark with 500 (after only two seasons) and broke the school record of 22 career double-figure assist games. In a game against Florida Atlantic, Gottlieb set a school record and tied the Big 12 mark with 18 assists, and in the Big 12 tournament, he set the record for assists in a game (14) as well as in tournament play (38). He led the Big 12 in games, with 34. The 1998–99 season culminated with another trip to the NCAA tournament.
As a senior, Gottlieb again led the NCAA in assists, with 293, and finished second in the nation in assists per game with 8.6. He was 7th in the Big 12 in both steals, with 53, and games, with 34. Gottlieb's senior season ended with a third consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament, and the team made it all the way to the Elite Eight. In addition to being named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention his senior year at Oklahoma State, Gottlieb was named the 1999 Big 12 Scholar Athlete Community Service Athlete of the Year.
Gottlieb notably entered a game with his shorts on backwards. He then took his shorts off while on the court, and put them back on correctly. He was guarded from cameras and taunting fans by a circle that his teammates formed around their embarrassed teammate. When Gottlieb became a broadcaster after his playing days ended, this incident was mentioned in a press conference by North Carolina head coach Roy Williams. After being questioned about criticism of his program by Gottlieb, Williams responded that Gottlieb "couldn't even put his pants on the right way." Williams then said "shorts on backwards, shorts on backwards," imitating the chant that opposing fans said to Gottlieb after the incident.
Gottlieb currently holds all of Oklahoma State's assist records, and ranks tenth all-time in NCAA career assists, with 947. He graduated from Oklahoma State in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in marketing.