The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball team won’t play its first game for more than two months, but this could be shaping up as the most talented roster the Phoenix has put together in Doug Gottlieb’s first three years as coach.
“The word talent is a very, we could argue about the word talent,” Gottlieb said after UWGB’s practice Aug. 12. “Are you talented because you are more athletic or are you talented because you can actually play basketball? Is [former point guard Preston Ruedinger] as talented as some of the guards we have here athletically? Probably not. But who would you rather have playing?
“I do think it’s the best collection of athletes that we have had. Fitting them together, figuring out who, how, that is our job as coaches. But, yes, it’s a higher level of athlete.”
The Phoenix won’t sneak up on anybody like it might have in 2025-26, when it went from a team that won just four games in Gottlieb’s first season in 2024-25 to 18 victories.
The total included beating Purdue Fort Wayne in a Horizon League tournament opener, the first tournament win by UWGB in six years.
The success was enough to earn Gottlieb a contract extension in the offseason that makes him the highest paid employee in school history.
UWGB no longer has Ruedinger leading the team, at least not on the court after he was hired as an assistant coach this summer.
It lost all-conference guard C.J. O’Hara to fellow Horizon member Wright State in the transfer portal.
It doesn't have 6-foot-9 forward Ramel Bethea to help protect the rim after he left for The Citadel.
It lost third-leading scorer Justin Allen to graduation, although there still is at least a possibility he could be granted an extra season of eligibility by the NCAA.
The team also no longer has 6-8 forward Vukasin Todorovic, who is now at DI Niagara.
But Gottlieb and his assistant coaches filled the holes quite well after first retaining 6-6 senior forward Marcus Hall and promising 7-footer Maruan Cicic.
They signed senior guard Jaxon Edwards, who led IU Indy in rebounding and blocks last season and is an almost perfect replacement for O’Hara.
They found a potential defensive stopper in former Fort Lewis guard Stewart Erhart, a big scorer in former Odessa College guard Ahmere Carson and several players with good size.
They even have a potential replacement for former Calvin University star Jalen Overway, who joined the team in April but tore an anterior cruciate ligament a short time later, with the recent signing of 6-8 Slovenian forward Tadej Colnaric.
He will join the team next week.
“We can throw out 6-7 to 6-8, 6-9 across the board,” Gottlieb said. “We can play a little smaller because we have several quality guards that are point guards but can also score off the basketball. I think we have a more traditional lineup.
“I like what we have. … It’s always different when the lights are on and the popcorn is popping.”
Challenging start for the Phoenix
UWGB won’t have to wait long to see how the new faces perform in big settings together.
The team will play Wisconsin, Marquette and Illinois State during the exhibition season in October to prepare for the season opener in November.
“You have got two probably top-30 teams and Illinois State, I would say, is a top-50 team. They will probably be picked first or second in the Valley,” Gottlieb said. “All our weaknesses are going to get exposed. My caution is, one, can we keep our confidence, because that first part of the schedule is difficult. And then two, can we spend time and figure out what we have, because what happens when you are on the sideline in those exhibition games is you are so competitive and you want to win, sometimes you can lose track of, ‘Hey, we have got to figure out exactly what we have here.’
“I would hope by the end of those exhibition games we will have a good sense of what we have."
Marcus Hall hopes to improve on defense
When Hall decided to return for his senior season, it marked the first time since former guard Kam Hankerson graduated in 2020 that a player will spend his entire career in Green Bay.
Hall matched his career high in scoring as a junior with 13.9 points per game and had career highs in rebounds (5.2 rpg), assists (2.5 apg), shooting percentage (47.1%), 3-point percentage (40.6%) and minutes (34.5 mpg).
Gottlieb believes Hall looks different from last season, but in a positive way. He looks confident and doesn’t second-guess.
The best news is that Gottlieb thinks Hall has improved on defense. He’s not an all-league defender yet, but he has put in a good summer.
“Defense is probably the biggest thing,” Hall said. “I feel like I have always been a pretty efficient offensive player, and this year I’ll have to take another step with that, too. But I feel like on the defensive side of the ball is where I need to make the biggest improvements, and I feel like I have been. I just need to keep working at that.”
UWGB freshman working way back from injury
Former Brookfield Central 6-9 standout Henry Gruetzmacher hasn’t been able to do much after being injured in the spring.
Gottlieb said Gruetzmacher picked up “some pottery” and cut his hand.
He’s working out with the team but hasn’t seen any live action.
“He’s an awesome kid,” Gottlieb said. “Kind of the perfect Green Bay Phoenix. A 6-foot-8, 6-foot-9 Bennett Basich. He plays hard. Impossible not to want him to play.”
Gottlieb expects Gruetzmacher to return in September.
Gruetzmacher averaged 23.5 points and 11.3 rebounds in his final prep season with the Lancers.
He had 27 points and 11 rebounds in a 67-62 loss to New Berlin West in a WIAA Division 3 regional championship to end his career.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: UWGB men's basketball might have its best team of the Doug Gottlieb era