Pitt Panther Prowl

Doug Gottlieb: the Man, the Myth, the Moron

I usually try to keep my writing about Pitt football and basketball, not straying from the topic because if you wanted to read about something other than that, you probably wouldn’t be on a blog specifically about that.  But after watching college basketball, and whatever the postgame show is, on ESPN 2 (I think) last night, I just had to write about Doug Gottlieb and his irritating hatred for all things Big East.

If anyone else watched and saw what I am talking about from the Sunday night college hoops coverage, feel free to post comments telling me if I am right or if I am way off base.

I wasn’t planning to write about this last night, so I don’t remember the name of the “host” of the show, and the other analyst was Tom something who used to be coach at Vermont.  They opened the coverage by talking about how strong the Big East is as a conference this year; the host saying that every analyst across the country agrees that this year the Big East is head and shoulders the best conference in basketball (kind of a nice vindication considering the crap we take in football).

After Coach Tom gave his assent that this is indeed the case, Gottlieb, eternal hater of all things Big East, became visibly angry at the discussion.  He so hated the conversation being about the strength of the Big East conference that the host had to say to him, “Yes, but there is going to be 8 teams from this conference ranked come tomorrow.”

Gottlieb’s response was first to make them name the 8 teams, as if he didn’t believe it.  Once all 8 were listed, he was pissed and said that Marquette shouldn’t stay ranked after a home loss to Dayton.  The host said that they should and would (and as it turns out stayed ranked in one while dropping from the other poll).  From there, Gottlieb said, “Maybe before we put 8 or 9 teams in the tournament we should get through the pre-season.”

It was so obvious that he hates the Big East that he was angry just having to talk about it.  Way to be an analyst of the sport.  Your “analysis” is to get mad that things aren’t the way you want them to be.

Of course, he played basketball at Oklahoma St. and is a huge homer for the Big 12.  Now I have no problem with analysts being homers to a point.  For example, Mark May and Lou Holtz obviously pull for Pitt and Notre Dame respectively.  But they generally do so in good fun, never getting angry or defensive.  It is a joke that virtually every week Lou Holtz picks ND to win, no matter the opponent.  It was an evern bigger joke this past week that he actually picked against them, knowing he couldn’t justify picking them against USC (much as Mark May gave Pitt no chance to beat a significantly superior WVU team in 2007).  But Doug Gottlieb, just like Robert Smith (Ohio St.) with football, is such a homer, that he can’t actually accept that another team or league might be better than his.  Instead of being objective about it, despite his own feelings and desires, he just tries to be more adament that everyone else is wrong, and ends up looking like a cry baby.

It was so obvious, that when it came time to talk about the Big 12, the host of the program said, “Now we can talk about what Doug wants to talk about, the Big 12.”  Of course, Gottlieb did bring the Big 12 up during the Big East discussion.

In discussing the Big 12, he used it as a chance to suggest that they were at least on even par with the Big East, if not superior, by making the following argument.  He said that once Baylor beat Wake Forest last night (they didn’t) they would be the second Big 12 team to win a preseason tournament.  And he made the point specifically that Baylor is the fourth best team in the Big 12, implying that if the fourth best team in the Big 12 wins a preseason tournament, then of course that shows how strong that conference is.  He also made it appear as though the Big East won 0, and didn’t mention that Pitt beat Texas Tech of the Big 12.

He then went on to justify the stregnth of the Big 12 over the Big East by pointing out that Notre Dame lost.  He didn’t mention that Notre Dame, the fourth best team in the Big East according to the rankings, beat the number one team (Texas) in the Big 12.  He also didn’t mention that their loss came to North Carolina, easily the best team in the country, and NOT in the Big 12.

He then went on to point out how Syracuse did beat Kansas, but how Kansas forced Syracuse to come from behind to beat them.  Hmmm.  Kansas is the number three team in the Big 12, and the defending national champs.  Syracuse, according to the rankings would have been the number 8 team in the Big East.  Kansas was ranked.  Syracuse was not.  And he pointed out that the game was in Kansas City, apparently to emphasize that it was virtually a road game for KU, who is about 100 miles from Kansas City, while apparently a game in Kansas City is a home game for a team from upstate New York.

So Baylor lost the game to Wake Forest, and didn’t win a pre-season tournament that didn’t even feature a Big East team, making it irrelevant even if the Big 12 had gotten a championship since there was no Big East team competing for said tournament championship.  He also “forgot” to mention that our number four team (ND) beat their number one team (Texas), while making sure to mention that they lost, while forgetting (again) to mention that it was to the number 1 team in the country.  He left out the fact that Pitt manhandled Texas Tech.  And he presented the Syracuse upset over Kansas in a virtual home game for Kansas (trust me, I live in Kansas, anything under 200 miles isn’t too far for anyone out here to drive for just a few hour stop) as Syracuse somehow surviving to beat the higher ranked defending national champions.

This wouldn’t bother me so much if Gottlieb didn’t regularly call Big East games for ESPN.  In fact, he is calling a Pitt game coming up this week or next week.  He regularly picks against Pitt just because he hates that they get love and hype.  He treats them and much of the rest of the conference as though they are somehow this over-rated bunch of low-class teams.  Apparently it is irrelevant that Pitt has the fourth highest winning percentage in the last 7 years.

I don’t know why he is such a hater, other than being a Big 12 homer.  But why not be fair and honest.  I don’t deny that this year the Big 12 is the toughest football league around.  They probably have 3 teams that could beat half of the NFL teams.  I don’t deny that UNC is the best team in the country, even if the rest of the conference after them and Duke is fairly light.  I don’t want those things to be true, but the facts suggest otherwise.  If he can’t objectively look at basketball teams and give credit where credit is due instead of getting visibly angry and crying like a baby on national television, then maybe it is time that ESPN replaces him with someone who knows something.

Getting off the soapbox.  Thanks for your time in this matter.