Home on the Range

There may be no place better to go for a second chance than this small college town.

At Oklahoma State, where Doug Gottlieb’s passes come sweeping down the lane, basketball has an ancient tradition, going back to--genuflect, please--Hank Iba. Football has its place, but basketball is as imposing as Iba’s life-size statue in the Gallagher-Iba Arena lobby.

Gottlieb knew the history. He knew of the rabid fans. He knew the Cowboys needed a point guard.

Why he is here, though, is not so simple.

He needed a place for redemption after leaving Notre Dame in 1996. He pleaded guilty to theft charges after stealing credit cards from three students. He returned to Orange County, where he had starred at Tustin High, attended classes at a community college and looked for the right place.

Stillwater.

It was where Coach Eddie Sutton landed in 1991, seeking a second chance. He had left Kentucky in 1989, shortly before the Wildcats were put on probation for recruiting and academic violations.

“It’s not something Coach and I have ever talked about,” Gottlieb said. “In the back of both our minds, we know. I think he can understand some of things I’ve gone through.

“People live two lives. He was so well thought of at Arkansas, and still is. Then he leaves Arkansas and ‘Kentucky’s Shame’ is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. A couple years later, he’s a god again in Stillwater.”

Said Sutton, “When the founders of the state sat down to decide where they were going to put the state universities, a lot of times they put them as far away from sin as possible.”

Home-Court Horrors

There was no better place to be in this small college town last Wednesday than the Gallagher-Iba Arena . . . until Cowboy fans began stampeding toward the exits when it became evident Nebraska was going to hand No. 25 Oklahoma State its first loss, at home, no less.

“We don’t lose at home,” Gottlieb had said the day before.

But lose they did.

And it was Gottlieb’s worst game of the season. He started well--as did the Cowboys--with two steals for layups that helped give Oklahoma State a 9-2 lead. He finished poorly--as did the Cowboys--being beaten inside twice as Nebraska went up by five.

Of course, if Gottlieb can shoulder some of the responsibility for the loss, he can also accept much of the credit for everything else.

He has had double-digit assists four times, as Oklahoma State (12-1) got off to its third-best start. And he is seventh in the nation with 7.2 assists a game.

The Cowboys’ 11-0 start certainly fueled Gottlieb’s imagination. People around him have experienced a Final Four. Sutton, with Arkansas and Oklahoma State. Arizona’s Miles Simon, who has played with Gottlieb on traveling teams since they were kids.

“I really want to get to a Final Four,” Gottlieb said. “I’ve been there so many times as a fan. I just want to be there one time as a player, be in that spotlight. It’s possible.”

More so at Oklahoma State this season than last. The Cowboys lacked direction a year ago, meandering through a 17-15 season. What they needed was a guard to run the team.

What a coincidence. Gottlieb needed a team to run.

Sutton had been interested in Gottlieb when he was at Tustin, but backed off after learning Gottlieb was going to stay on the West Coast or go to Notre Dame.

“The last two years, we suffered without a point guard,” Sutton said. “I wasn’t sure being away from the game [for a year], that Doug would adjust so quickly. He has surpassed what we felt he could do as a sophomore.

“He also has brought some confidence and toughness that has rubbed off on our younger players.”

At Texas A&M; two weeks ago, Gottlieb got into a running commentary with the hecklers who began calling him “Ratboy.” Gottlieb pointed out that, unlike a rat, he had good teeth.

It went on and on, and escalated. After Cowboy guard Joe Adkins was called for a technical foul, Gottlieb had some choice words for the Aggie bench. A&M; Coach Tony Barone charged Sutton and had a few choice words of his own.

Oklahoma State won, 100-65.

“I’m anxious to see Doug go into some of the hostile places we have in this conference . . . Missouri, Kansas, Iowa State,” Sutton said.

“I told him after the A&M; game that I didn’t mind him talking, but he didn’t want to get a reputation around the conference as a bigmouth. I said, ‘You don’t want to incite the other crowd and make the other team think you’re a bad guy.’ I don’t know if he thrives on that or not.”

Gottlieb did in high school, and he does now. He even carries on a running conversation with the Oklahoma State radio broadcasters--during games.

“Doug will talk to anyone,” Cowboy center Brett Robisch said in a newspaper article after the Texas A & M game. “If a guy loves to play the game, let him go out there and play. I think it’s great. He brings confidence to our team, and that’s something we needed. I love playing with him.”

Not as much as Gottlieb loves playing.

Gottlieb grew up with the game, as his father, Bob, coached at Creighton, Jacksonville and Long Beach State, among other schools. One of Doug’s earliest memories was shooting free throws with Craig Hodges before Long Beach State games.

“The family down the street had a hoop on a flat driveway and ours was slanted,” Gottlieb said. “Every day I would come home, get my basketball and go down there. I would pretend I hit a game-winning shot, and come running home and slap our bushes ‘five,’ like they were people.

“Basketball should be fun.”

The Sutton Connection

There was no place better to be in this small college town than the Cowboys’ practice last Wednesday.

As the team stretched, Gottlieb went into his Sutton impression: “ Tyyyy-rooon Luuue has theeee best cross-over.

“Like we’ve never seen a cross-over before,” Gottlieb said.

He nervously looked over his shoulder, making sure Sutton was out of earshot.

But if Gottlieb likes Stillwater, he loves Sutton.

It’s not merely because his father coached for Sutton at Creighton, before Gottlieb was born. He met Sutton a few times at Final Fours, but only in the last year have they come to know each other.

What was appealing was Sutton’s return to grace when he returned to Stillwater, where he had played from 1956-58.

Sutton is experienced at dodging direct questions about his Kentucky experience.

Although never directly implicated, Sutton stepped down after the NCAA found 18 recruiting violations. All he will say about his four years there was, “I enjoyed it, except for the last one.”

Gottlieb had only one year at Notre Dame and didn’t enjoy it.

It had been fine at first. Gottlieb had been promised he would play immediately, and did, starting in 23 of the 27 games in which he appeared.

He left the following June, after the thefts of three credit cards in his dormitory were traced to him. Gottlieb used the cards to buy nearly $1,000 in merchandise.

He made restitution, was fined $500 plus court costs and was ordered to undergo counseling. Notre Dame Coach John MacLeod has refused to comment on Gottlieb, who, in turn, still harbors bad feelings about some of his experiences at Notre Dame.

“Every person has something in their life they would like to take back,” Gottlieb said. “I can’t take that back. I can’t change what happened. I can’t tell you why I did it, whether it was because I was greedy or whether I was depressed and unhappy there. It would all be a cop-out.

“What I learned was, whatever the problem was, it was within me and I had to change.”

So Gottlieb spent last year at Golden West College, but did not play. Instead, he watched Simon win a national title at Arizona.

“I was so jealous,” Gottlieb said. “Not only was he having fun, but I wasn’t even playing. I’ve been through a lot of things and they are no secret to anybody. It changed my perception. I appreciate this more now because I lost it.

“I know when people see my name in the newspaper, or hear something about me, they think of me at Notre Dame,” Gottlieb said. “That’s the person they think I am. I can’t do anything to erase that. All I can do is be the person my parents raised me to be.

“There’s a serenity here and I like it. People don’t know about my past, nor do they care. It’s given me a second chance. There was no better place for me than Stillwater.”