Like me, you probably don’t think much about Doug Gottlieb. After last night’s most recent Gottlieb hot-take-gone-bad, you shouldn’t think much of him, either:

Gottlieb couldn’t even wait until the Villanova Wildcats had officially won their second national title in three seasons to post this smear against Rick Brunson and, by extension, the national college player of the year. That Tweet went up sometime in the second half — that’s how excited Gottlieb was to get his shot off.

Gottlieb was apparently referring to Rick Brunson’s brush with the law a few years back — since Rick Brunson was acquitted, I’m not going to discuss the particulars here — and how that court case against Rick Brunson may have scuttled his job prospects at his alma mater, Temple University. At the time, the unfounded speculation was that Rick Brunson was going to be hired to coach Temple’s men’s basketball team and that his son, Jalen, would play for him there.

Rick Brunson did not end up coaching Temple. I don’t know why. Neither do you. More to the point, neither does Doug Gottlieb. But he still took it upon himself to dirty Rick Brunson’s name, needlessly, at a time when Rick Brunson was surely and justifiably proud of what his son had accomplished in front of a national audience.

For the record, like my colleague Kevin Kinkead, I am not a member of Nova Nation. Didn’t go there. But like many people reading this, I have friends and family who did. Love them or not, there are several things you cannot take away from Villanova. At the top of the list is that its students and alumni take care of their own:

https://twitter.com/Smoove2you_/status/981035355049807872

That’s right, Gottlieb. Nobody has forgotten about your sneaky, dishonest deeds, which you — after years of trying to downplay them — finally sort of explained away in February. “I was a thief. Period.” Gottlieb could have saved us all 15-20 minutes and just posted that.

The hilarious part of that piece, in the light of this morning, is how Gottlieb wrote such treacle about his own journey and living down his own sin. I guess he’s the only one who deserves to have his past stay in the past.

Meanwhile, Jalen Brunson goes out last night and has, for him, a disappointing performance in one of the biggest games of his life. He scored nine points on 13 shots from the field and didn’t get to the free throw line. He was seated with four fouls while his teammates performed the last rites on Michigan through the last quarter of the game. How did Jalen Brunson handle this disappointment? Let’s ask Kyle Boone, who writes for one of Gottlieb’s former employers (CBS Sports):

Brunson’s teammates were hardly surprised he took a backseat once it was apparent DiVincenzo had it rolling.

“He’s just always all about the team,” junior guard Phil Booth said. “His mental approach to the game is on another level. We just made it all about each other. We just focused on being the best team we could be this season.

“And Jalen’s been great all season. He’s a great leader, so unselfish. With all the buzz around him with Player of the Year, he just played his game.”

Villanova’s recent ascendancy to the highest heights of college basketball has been a welcome respite from what has otherwise been a pretty ugly period in the sport’s history:

Well, it’s nice to see Gottlieb’s journalistic integrity is still intact!

The primary problem the media has with Villanova right now is that there just isn’t much to talk about beyond how great they are and how their coach is among the best in the world at what he does. Villanova’s players aren’t in trouble off the court. They aren’t on academic probation. They aren’t even trash-talking or getting into scraps with opponents on the court. When you win two titles in three seasons, and go 12-0 against the spread during those two NCAA Tournament runs, you’re so good that all there is to do is play basketball and collect trophies.

As for Gottlieb, this foot-in-mouth (Twitter-style) debacle will fade into memory like his recent racist and classist undercut of Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, or his jingoistic undercut of Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre, or his “white man’s perspective” line delivered live on air, literally in the center seat among four African American broadcasters.

Sort of makes you wonder how a guy like that would end up working for Fox Sports.

Rick and Jalen Brunson deserved a lot better last night than Doug Gottlieb and his idle musings about the underpinnings of this Villanova title.

As for me, I’m tired of thinking about Doug Gottlieb. It had been a long time since I had, and I hope it’s a long time until I have to again.