The UWGB men’s basketball team ended a 21-game losing streak Sunday.
The UWGB men’s basketball team ended a 21-game losing streak Sunday.
- Ramel Bethea, a 6-9 forward-center, played his freshman season at MiraCosta College after five years in the military.
- UWGB coach Doug Gottlieb sought older players to add experience to his young roster.
- Bethea’s basketball career began late, but his athleticism and potential attracted attention from multiple Division I schools.
GREEN BAY – University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball coach Doug Gottlieb had a few goals when constructing his team this spring.
One of them was to get older after having nine freshmen on the roster in his first season, all while trying to compete in an NCAA Division I world in which the average age of starters playing in the Sweet 16 was 21.6 years.
College players don’t get much older than Gottlieb’s latest recruit. Almost none have his backstory, either.
Ramel Bethea, a 6-foot-9 forward-center, will be 29 by the time UWGB opens the 2025-26 season at Kansas in November.
That isn’t a typo. He turns 29 in July. Almost as old as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic and more than a decade older than NBA prospect Cooper Flagg.
Bethea spent his freshman season in 2024-25 at MiraCosta College, a junior college in San Diego, after spending five years in the military.
BYU guard Trevin Knell was the oldest player in DI this season at 26, his career delayed a few years in part because of his Mormon mission.
Bethea’s story started to make the rounds during the season, the mystery man with a 7-4 wingspan who seemingly came out of nowhere to attract the attention of college recruiters.
He didn’t play basketball growing up, unless you count those times at the Boys & Girls Club when he was 10. He was a scrawny, lanky kid his entire childhood.
Bethea was 5-9 when he arrived at Friendly High School in Fort Washington, Maryland. He was close to 6-4 by the time he was a senior, but still so scrawny he weighed 130 pounds on graduation day in 2014.
Ramel Bethea joins the Navy
Bethea wasn’t sure what life had in store for him.
He had two hard-working parents, but neither mom nor dad went to college.
He got a job at Dunkin’ Donuts, left after a few months, and worked for a Harris Teeter grocery store the next two years.
It was there Bethea happened to speak with a recruiter for the Marines, which started a full-court press to get him to join.
“I was kind of scared, so I was baby stepping it,” Bethea said. “But they were doing their job, not allowing me to baby step. They said, ‘Hey, you should show up tomorrow.’ I showed up, and that would lead to something else.”
There was one problem. The Marines didn’t accept recruits with tattoos on their lower arms like Bethea.
They instead had him speak to the Navy.
Bethea attended a Navy boot camp in Chicago in February 2019, completing a process that started two years earlier because of the wait period for the job he wanted and the waiver he needed for his tattoos.
Bethea spent eight weeks in boot camp, getting up each day as early as 4:30 a.m. He now stood 6-6, but still weighed only 156 pounds.
What stood out most to him was how cold Chicago is during the winter. He took note he never wanted to live somewhere that cold again. And, yes, Bethea knows people will laugh about that after he signed with UWGB.
Bethea completed boot camp in frigid Illinois and spent a half decade in the Navy.
It included doing air conditioning and auxiliary work on the USS John C. Stennis in Virginia. His job was to make sure everything kept running smoothly.
Bethea met a colleague there that had played DI basketball. He didn’t even know his name, but the man asked if he was going to the gym to play basketball that day.
Bethea wasn’t going to, but something told him he should.
His new friend asked what college he had played at and was left in disbelief when Bethea told him nowhere.
The two exchanged numbers. Bethea started playing more often. He started lifting weights.
He still was skinny, maybe about 170 pounds. But he was now 6-7 or 6-8.
Bethea attended a tryout in 2021 with hopes of playing for the Navy at the Armed Forces Basketball Championships.
He made the team because of his athleticism and the fact that there aren’t many 6-8 people in the military, but he didn’t get off the bench much.
Bethea tried out for the team the following year after spending months working on his game and getting stronger. He made it again.
“I was starting to look like a basketball player,” Bethea said.
His minutes and production increased his second year. His team went undefeated against the other branches before finishing runner-up at the Armed Forces Championships.
At the end of the tournament, Bethea was one of 12 selected to play for the United States Armed Forces in Belgium against branches from more than 10 other countries.
Bethea’s contract with the Navy expired in early 2024. His plan was to get a job to help support him and his young son.
That changed when MiraCosta came calling. It was an opportunity to get a degree even if basketball didn’t work out.
“I thought I was good, but when I got to JUCO, it was a reality check,” Bethea said. “I just started hooping and my experience is very low, to the point that my athleticism and height is carrying me most of the way.”
He was total trash early on. That’s how he felt.
Some might have thought he’d have an advantage being older than opponents, but they tend to forget he wasn’t in the basketball shape they were in and didn’t have their years on the court.
“I used to struggle with confidence a lot,” Bethea said. “It’s not hard to see my potential when you see me hoop, but you can see the youth in my game.”
Ramel Bethea shines in first collegiate season
His teammates believed in him, and it only took the first game of his collegiate career to see why.
MiraCosta played Fullerton to start the season, a team projected to be the best JUCO squad in California and featuring 6-10 forward Joe Grahovac, who signed with St. Bonaventure last month.
Bethea’s team lost, but he had 15 points, 5 rebounds, 6 blocks and shot 7-for-11.
“Once I went tipoff, I don’t know why that sparked some confidence in me,” Bethea said. “I played that game looking like I played basketball before. Like, this was not the first time. Everything felt so smooth from the beginning to the end, other than me getting tired a little bit.
“It was the most fun time I ever had on a basketball court.”
His phone started blowing up after that game. Everyone wanted to know his story. Division I schools started checking in.
UWGB assistant coach Aerick Sanders flew to California in January to watch Bethea practice and play a game against Palomar. UNLV was at the same contest.
Bethea had 20 points, 11 rebounds and 9 blocks in a 72-70 win.
He didn’t know much about college teams or the business at that point. He didn’t know what NIL meant. Didn’t really know what a conference was or the difference between a major and a mid-major.
He did know win-loss records, and UWGB didn’t have a good one when he checked. He was more interested in UNLV.
But his play left an impression on Sanders.
“He was like, ‘Coach, there is this kid who I think he’s 27, but he was in the military,’” Gottlieb said. “He’s like, ‘He’s a (expletive) freak.’”
Ramel Bethea picks Green Bay
All the phone calls — including from agents — started to get overwhelming. At least 25 DI schools expressed interest.
Bethea started to tell people he just wanted to finish the season and concentrate on school until spring, which might have hurt his recruitment but was what he felt was best.
He had a solid rookie year, averaging 12.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and shooting 50.5%.
“When the transfer portal opened up, a lot of schools that reached out to me might have picked from the transfer portal and forgot about me,” Bethea said. “Green Bay was one of those schools that pretty much didn’t forget about me. I went on a visit with Eastern Kentucky, but it was my first visit, and I didn’t want to make a decision then. Once I made a visit with them, a lot of schools that kind of forgot about me saw the picture and was like, ‘Oh, snap, that guy again.’
“A lot of schools reached out to me again, but Green Bay, they came to one of my games. I started to become more knowledgeable about the politics of basketball throughout the season and started to learn why certain things happen. One season and a good recruiting class, that’s all it takes to turn a program around.”
UWGB wasn’t certain it could land Bethea when it started recruiting him. He was out of its price range with the potential to double what the school could offer. Big men almost always cost more in the portal.
Gottlieb didn’t give up. He told Bethea he could come here and earn a lot of playing time, opening the door for more lucrative opportunities in a year or two.
He did the same for former standout Anthony Roy this season, who despite being limited to just 11 games with an ankle injury, signed with Oklahoma State for a lot more money in April.
Still, it wasn’t a sure thing Bethea would commit when he visited Green Bay last week with his girlfriend.
“I came out there with the intentions that I was going to hate it,” Bethea said. “California spoiled me. So, my whole thing was that if a school wants me, they have to give me a comfortable reason to leave California. No one wants to leave California, because it’s hard to get back once you leave.
“When I went out there — I hated Chicago when I was in boot camp — there is no way I’m going to like Green Bay.”
Then he arrived on campus. Things changed enough for him to reconsider.
“It looked like a nice place to slow down from everything, from the Cali life to the military area I was in Virginia was a fast-paced area, too,” Bethea said. “Slow down from all the distractions. Coach Gottlieb, he has a platform to get my story out there. He has a platform to be a coach at a school where I feel I’m needed.
“At the end of the day, he preached it to me and his coaching staff preached it to me, they are going to take care of me. They understand the situation that you are an older guy that basically needs experience and teach the right way to play basketball. They did all that. They checked all the boxes.”
Bethea is looking forward to Gottlieb pushing him. He wants to get in perfect basketball shape and play at the highest level his body will allow.
He doesn’t know everything about the game yet, but he has the discipline and desire to learn.
Bethea knows basketball gives him opportunities. It excites him every day to get better.
The future has a chance to be bright, and being the old man on the team, he has lived long enough to know what he does and doesn’t want.
“I don’t want to go back to turning wrenches, man,” Bethea said.
If it all works out, he won’t have to.
“He has so much potential,” Gottlieb said. “It’s crazy.”
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