GREEN BAY — The UW-Green Bay men’s basketball team is entering Year 3 of the Doug Gottlieb era.
The Phoenix hit the court Monday for their first practice of the 2026-27 season.
Last season, The Phoenix finished tied for fourth in the Horizon League standings. When asked what he has in his team this season, Gottlieb said he’s still trying to figure out what his squad is made of.
WATCH THE STORY HERE!
“I’m not pessimistic. I’m not optimistic,” Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb will be the first to tell you he’s inexperienced—after all, this is just his third season of being a head coach—but he said he's learned quite a lot over the last two years. One is to trust his instincts more. The other?
“Whatever you don’t prepare for, that’s going to happen," he said Monday. "It always, it happens that way."
Turnover is everywhere in the modern college basketball landscape, but the Phoenix return one of their top players.
Last season big man Marcus Hall, a D.C. Everest alum, averaged 13 points, five rebounds and two assists per game.
Heading into his senior year, Gottlieb thinks he can be a candidate for Horizon League Player of the Year.
“The thing I really admire about him is, like, he, last year, he’s like, ‘I got to get better at scoring the post,'" Gottlieb said. "He became an awesome post player, you know. Now we want him doing some different things.”
But another local guy is expected to have a more prominent role on the Phoenix this year. That’s sophomore guard out of Kaukauna, Keegan Van Kauwenberg, who averaged two points his freshman year.
“He’s figured out what we want from him offensively, which is anytime he sees air to shoot the ball,” said his head coach. “He kind of fought us on that last year. You know, he’s like, ‘Well, I can do more than that.’ We’re like, ‘We know you can — (but) shoot the ball.’ For him, it’s just, he knows it. It’s all going to be about defense, toughness, rebounding, because offensively, he’s fantastic.”
There are many new faces on the roster this year, something every college basketball team is dealing with, but Hall likes the makeup of his new teammates.
“I think we have a lot of dudes who want to play and they’re willing to fight for playing time, and I feel like that will carry over once we’re playing against other people and it’ll just show that guys who really want it, and I feel like we’re going to be pretty deep this year because of that,” said Hall.
The Phoenix are less than a month away from having their first scrimmage. They’ll host Wisconsin at the Resch Center on Oct. 15.
