GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Entering his second year as UW-Green Bay's head coach, Doug Gottlieb has made an intriguing addition: a nearly 7-foot tall, 28-year-old who just might have the most interesting journey in NCAA Division 1 basketball. They're hoping he can help improve a team that went just 4-28 last season.
“First you’re going to get defense,” Bethea said of what he brings to the Phoenix. “I’m a shot blocker. I want all the blocks. I try to contest everything. That alone brings excitement to the crowd.”
Growing up, Ramel Bethea never played organized basketball. When he graduated from high school in Maryland in 2014, he knew he didn’t want to go to college. After working at Dunkin' Donuts and then a local grocery store, in 2019 he found himself joining the Navy because the Marines didn’t accept his tattoos.
“The lifestyle of just being a group of people that all has one common goal—to serve the country—just to be around that, it really made it seem like it’s better than what I’m doing right now,” said the new Phoenix addition. “Better than me being in a grocery store.”
At his high school graduation, Bethea stood around 6 foot 4 or 5, but later blossomed to an imposing 6-foot-9. He originally had orders to work on a submarine, but he didn’t think he would fit.
During his time in the Navy he was a Machinist Mate working with auxiliary equipment, such as the hydraulics on boats. A few years into his enlistment, by chance, he found basketball with the help of a fellow sailor named Brandon Goldsmith, who had played college basketball.
“In like 2022, (Goldsmith) came up to me and was like, ‘Hey, you going to the gym to hoop today?’ I said, ‘Nah, I don’t have plans to.’ He said, ‘Oh, we hooping today.’ And he only said that because he seen my height.”
After that, the two became close, spending time together in the weight room and on and off the court. Soon, Bethea found himself on the Navy basketball team.
“I’m getting better, and now people are noticing like, ‘Hey, you never played before?’ I was like, ‘No, never played.’ And they were like, ‘Are you sure?’”
That chance encounter eventually led him to MiraCosta Junior College located in Oceanside, California when he left the service in early 2024. He quickly made an impression on his new teammates, who didn’t think he would pan out after the first practice.
“They told me, once the first game (was done, his teammate said), ‘I thought Mel was going to be trash; I’m glad we got him.’”
In that first game, Bethea racked up 15 points, 5 boards, and 6 blocks. At the end of the season, he was averaging 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 blocks per game.
“What they got out of me is not what they expected at all,” he said. “Not in my first year of basketball.”
“I didn’t have to work or nothing. The GI Bill took care of my housing. All I had to worry about was schooling and work—basketball.”
Several D-1 schools had interest in him, and at one point, Bethea was so overwhelmed he shut down his recruiting. When he opened it back up, he says UWGB was surprised they were still an option because they thought he was going to a bigger program. However, when he visited Green Bay, he was sold.
“I told myself I was not going to make a decision there (on the visit) and be high on the moment of it being a good trip,” Bethea said. “Everything felt perfect, and (Coach Gottlieb) explained everything perfectly.”
