GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – UW-Green Bay’s annual Steak Fry at Lambeau Field brought in a record-breaking $330,000 for the Phoenix Fund, marking the highest total in the event’s history.

During the event, the women’s basketball team earned the Women’s Team of the Year award after securing their second consecutive Horizon League tournament victory.

“This is such a special night to have the Steak Fry here at Lambeau Field and to have all of our great supporters here in one room along with these student-athletes and the entire athletic department, a lot of which have put in a lot of work here behind the scenes the last few months preparing this event,” said women’s basketball head coach Kayla Karius. “I think it’s a tremendous cause to be able to support our student-athletes and scholarships. To see so many people be here tonight and feel the love and support from our community, that’s what it’s all about.”

That overwhelming support is fueling the Phoenix as they rebuild following the graduation of seven seniors. To bolster the roster, Karius and her staff brought in eight new players—two freshmen and six transfers.

“We’re really excited about the team that we’ve been able to bring in,” Karius said. “Our staff has been hard at work really ever since the season ended. The month of April was a lot of recruiting and making sure that the right pieces joined our program, not just any player with talent because there are certainly a lot of those out there, but out of the 1500 names in the portal you have to sort through and make sure the people you are taking are the right fits. It takes a lot of time and a lot of homework behind the scenes.”

Five of the six transfer additions grew up in Northeast Wisconsin, close to the Green Bay program. Now, they aim to carry forward the legacy left by previous players.

“We have this theme of all these players wanting to come back home and wear a Green Bay jersey and we couldn’t be more thrilled,” Karius said. “I think for our community it’s a fantastic thing, for their families and for their student-athlete experience, it sets up to be really good. Now we haven’t won anything yet. We just have the pieces in place, so we have a lot of work to do so bring all those pieces together this summer, but we’re excited about it.”

On the men’s side, the Phoenix are coming off a tough 4-28 season under new head coach Doug Gottlieb, who stepped into the role last spring. To turn things around, he’s taking cues from the women’s program’s strategy.

“I think the path to success at Green Bay is, one, a strong rate of retention,” Gottlieb said. “That’s hard when you lose 21 games in a row. Let’s just be honest. We’re bringing six back officially, and of those six that are coming back, all but two are from Wisconsin. And then, how we wanna be successful here is, we got to be the best at recruiting Division 2, Division 3, we got to recruit junior college, we got to bring kids home. We wanna put the Wisconsin back in Green Bay. We want Wisconsin kids to come back home. That’s a draw.”

One of those returning Wisconsin players is DC Everest graduate Marcus Hall. Hall earned a spot on the Horizon League All-Freshman Team in 2023–24 and followed up with a strong sophomore season, averaging 12.9 points per game—the second highest on the team. Despite an early-season illness, Gottlieb sees major potential in him.

“We didn’t broadcast it, but he had mono right before the year last year so he was barely 200 pounds and he was playing the 5,” Gottlieb said. “He’s up to almost 230 now and I think he’s just tremendous.”

Hall and fellow Wisconsin native Preston Ruedinger both averaged over 8 points per game last season. According to Gottlieb, they’ll be crucial to the team’s future. With four new additions from the transfer portal, he hopes the surrounding talent level improves.

“I told my staff about midseason when we started talking about recruiting, ‘We gotta have more toughness—physical toughness, mental toughness,’” Gottlieb said. “We signed 4 kids that are tough kids that rebound well, defend well. If you watched us play, that’s what was missing. Now it’s gonna be on the coaches to get it right.”

Gottlieb made headlines last season for continuing to host his sports radio show while coaching. Will he keep juggling both roles in his second year?

“Yes, to answer your first question, unless you know something I don’t know,” Gottlieb said. “Will there be some changes? Yeah. I think smart evolution. We talked a little last year, ‘Do I wanna do it the day of games? Do I wanna do it the day before games?’ I would think I’ll probably dial back on day of games. Some of it’s for optics, but a little bit of it is, I just wanna be fresh and rested.”

Next season, the men’s and women’s basketball teams will share the same court far more often. The men are set to play just three games at the Resch Center, with the remainder of their home schedule shifting to the Kress Center—the regular home court of the women’s team.

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