FIU’s Isiah Thomas Stepchild in South Florida’s Cluttered Sports Scene

FIU’s Isiah Thomas Stepchild in South Florida’s Cluttered Sports Scene 

It's shouldn’t be any surprise why NBA Hall-of-Famer, Isiah Thomas, head coach of the Florida International University (FIU) basketball team, has operated the past two-seasons, virtually off-the-radar.  Isiah has taken a backseat to some of South Florida’s highest profile story-lines like the 2010-2011 Miami Heat championship run, a recent Miami Hurricane NCAA football investigation - and even in his own backyard - FIU's surging football and baseball programs.

After following nearly six tumultuous years as president and coach of the New York Knicks, Isiah wholeheartedly welcomes this publicity respite. "I had been on the public stage since the age of 17, performing at the highest level and over time my energy level was depleted," Isiah admitted. "Perhaps now, here in Florida, I am like Ponce De Leon in a quest to discover the Fountain of Youth."  While Isiah, obviously, has not accomplished what the 15th century Spanish explorer set out to achieve, he does appear to be recharged in his latest coaching gig.

"I find being around the kids so refreshing," Isiah said. "They have such energy, unbridled optimism, and naivety that allow them to dream so big and work so hard."

Isiah's charter for this year's team remains the same as his first two seasons’ - to continue laying down the groundwork for the transformation of a program that has not returned to the NCAA tournament since 1995 - into a mid-major powerhouse.

According to Isiah, winding up at FIU was a matter of chance, just like his childhood days, trying to survive on the dangerous streets of West Chicago, where as Isiah says: "Everyday you could find yourself a victim of circumstance."

Isiah grew up with significantly different aspirations than other basketball players with his talents, who fantasized about becoming NBA Stars.  As Thomas penned in his book, The Fundamentals: Eight Plays for winning the games of business and life: "My boyhood dreams were mostly about well-stocked refrigerators: huge refrigerators that were bursting at the hinges with mouth-watering roast chickens, heaping plates of spaghetti, and thick juicy steaks."

To get to his short-term dream, he often, as he termed, “trolled” the streets late at night searching for loose change or fast food wrappers with cheese remnants.  On one occasion, when he was 12-years-old, he found himself on the wrong side of a gun pointed to his head.  But just like his legendary on-court instincts that enabled him to elude carefully designed trap defenses; he managed to escape unscathed.

"When I flew into Miami for the head coaching job interview, I knew very little about FIU," Isiah confessed. "I thought I would simply meet with school officials, see some friends, have some fun in South Beach and it would end there."

"But when I stepped onto the campus, something happened.  I was amazed at the sheer size of the school (44,000 student body)," Isiah recalls. "After a great interview, I called my wife and told her, you know, I think I could make this work."

For FIU Executive Director of Sports and Entertainment, Pete Garcia, the pursuit and eventual signing of Isiah, was a result of him simply bumping into Isiah in the Dolphin Stadium Executive Suite during a Florida State- Oklahoma football game and them talking with each other the entire time.  Garcia, the former University of Miami recruiting coordinator, instrumental in bringing to “The U,” over a dozen future NFL stars, first met Isiah during his Cleveland Brown assistant coaching days.

After the game, Garcia, known to work the luxury suite like Lady Gaga owns the red carpet, maintained a dialogue with Isiah by initially seeking his professional input as to how to build a basketball program.  The relationship continued to flourish until Garcia eventually enquired about Isiah’s interest in coaching the Golden Panthers.  After a back-and-forth exchange, Isiah eventually relented and accepted the job, his first foray in the college basketball coaching ranks.  Garcia, the architect behind the resurrection of the football program and dazzling accent of the baseball team, inked Isiah to an incentive laden performance based contract for a whopping $0.0 annual salary.

Following a humbling first season, where FIU managed to squeak out a paltry seven victories, Isiah was added to the payroll.  Despite the fact that FIU only marginally improved in Isiah’s second season by notching 11 victories, Garcia remains unconcerned with his performance. “He’s building the program one step at a time and you don’t take shortcuts,” said Garcia. “You do it the right way and it takes a bit of time.”

Entering year three, there is no doubt Isiah has experienced some turbulence, having amassed a less than pedestrian 18-48 record, but he also grinded out some wins last season.

Isiah's squad had one of the most-potent offenses in the Sun Belt Conference, averaging 71.7 points-per-game. The Golden Panthers appeared to have successfully adopted Isiah’s signature pressure defense - ranking 28^th in the nation in steals-per-game.The team advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals. FIU competed hard on a nightly basis - losing six games by four points or less and 10 out of 11 conference games by six points or less.

Isiah particularly thrived in the recruiting trail, stacking up blue-chip prospects like college students pile up pizza boxes in their dorm rooms.  One such player Isiah lured away from the likes of recruiting powerhouses Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, Texas, and UCLA, was 6'-9" forward Dominique Ferguson, one of the nation’s most coveted high school players.

“I came to FIU for the chance to play for coach Thomas," said Ferguson. "It is not often you get to learn the game of basketball from one the NBA’s 50 greatest players of all-time.  He breaks the game down to its fundamentals and teaches us how to play the game the right way.”

Sometimes the ability to recruit high school all-Americans and JUCO (Junior College) studs can be trumped by other extenuating circumstances, like NCAA eligibility requirements.  FIU could have fielded a Sun Belt Conference title contender and probably much more with the list of star high school and JUCOs players, who invariably, could not gain entrance into the school, due to their academic shortcomings.

Then there were the player's who had to sit out the first semester to improve their academic standings. In 2010 it was the talented freshmen duo of Dominique Ferguson and Phil Taylor, whose grades did not initially meet university scholastic requirements.  This year, highly-touted, 6'-11" center Joey De La Rosa's academic status hangs in the balance.

Starting the season without key parts has become problematic for Isiah as the player's joining the team in mid-flight lack proper conditioning and the team chemistry has been compromised.  As for the players that did qualify, Isiah, also a current student at the University of California, Berkeley, via Skype, apparently convinced his players to buy into the academic component by example.  All five of his seniors graduated and received their degrees.

Perhaps, the most recurring question that first surfaced on day one when Isiah signed on with the Golden Panthers in April 2009 - Is he staying or going?  If you base your opinion on recent tweets by Frank Isola, New York Daily News Knicks beat writer, Isiah is mounting a cabal to return to the New York Knicks.

Isola reasons that since New York Knick star Amare Stoudemire, along with a slew of other noted NBA players, have practiced at FIU's U.S. Century Bank Arena; Isiah is as good as gone.  Perhaps, a more telling sign of Isiah's fate can be gleaned from the FIU message board chatter, where members are hard to please and never known to sugar-coat issues.

According to many of the Golden Panther's finest authorities; the furthest Isiah is going to go from the FIU campus is to South Beach to “People Watch,” for the day.  “I think Isiah is here to stay for quite some time," said one FIU message board member. "He likes it down here in Miami. People realize he is here for the long haul."

FIU’s Garcia also weighed in. “They ask me the same thing about my football and baseball coaches whether they are staying or leaving,” said Garcia. “I would much rather have coaches that everyone wants than coaches that nobody wants.”

At the end of the day, only Isiah truly knows if he will stay in or fold at FIU.  When asked about returning to the Garden last week, on the WQAM’s Miami Sid Rosenberg Radio Show, Isiah vaguely replied with his vintage response: "Who knows?"

Every now and again, Isiah still finds a way to make some headlines by participating in an interview with ESPN, serving up a controversial comment that inevitably dominates the air-waves, or staging a megastar NBA All-Star pick-up game on the confines of his college team’s cozy 5,000 seat arena.  These actions, whether intentional or spontaneous, elevate his stature as well as FIU’s to the national media forefront

Just recently, the Big Three: Lebron "King" James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, reached out to Isiah, to host a star-studded charity basketball game at FIU. The game's proceeds went towards the Mary Court Foundation, an educational-based charity for minorities, established in honor of Isiah's late mother, Mary Thomas.

The game attracted such fan-fare, students camped outside of the arena the night before tickets went on sale - like they were waiting for the release of iphone 5 - for their chance to attend the celebrity charity event.  The tickets were snatched up in two hours and some cost as much as $1,200 a pop.   Isiah shrugged off the notion it was his star power among the elite NBA fraternity that tilted the game to FIU, a veritable marketing coup for a university, once known as a commuter school.

 “Actually it was all these guys’ (The Big Three) idea. They wanted to do something here in Miami for their fans.  I received a call from them asking me if I would be interested in hosting the game at FIU,” Isiah modestly recollected.  “They wanted to do something for charity and they wanted to do something for my mom to acknowledge her efforts.”

Isiah’s mom, Mary Thomas, who was portrayed in a the movie, “A Mother’s Courage,” ran a youth center at a local church in West Chicago, where she spent a good part of her 87-year-life helping people; whether it was intervening in a gang fight, providing food and clothing for the indigent, or just making sure her seven kids and 50 grandchildren took care of business in the classroom.

As far as Isiah's squad this year, at first blush, the team appears to have mounting issues.  The Golden Panthers have lost three starters representing 51 percent of their offense, they will begin the season without prep standout freshman center Joey De La Rosa, and the team's star player, DeJuan Wright, is currently rehabilitating a knee injury.

However, there is also a glimmer of light flickering at the end of the tunnel.  The Golden Panthers return a formidable trio, comprised of the team's high-flying leading scorer and rebounder, 6’ 3" senior guard DeJuan Wright aka “Flight 14;” 6' 9" sophomore forward and former top 100 high school recruit, Dominique Ferguson; as well as the diminutive 5' 9" sophomore point guard Phil Taylor, who continued to improve and provide court leadership as last season progressed.

Isiah also has other potential assets at his disposal that could deepen his arsenal - although they pose some unanswered questions:
Can bookend twin towers 6' 10" junior center Brandon Moore and 7' 1" freshman center Gilles Dierickx, develop and learn to be effective inside the paint and off the glass?

Will 6' 6" JUCO sophomore swingman, Adetola Akomolafe, provide immediate inside presence and bench depth, given the sudden departures of high scoring and talented journeymen Alex Legion and Eric Frederick.
Is the triumvirate of senior shooting guard Jeremy Allen, sophomore Richaud Pack, and hot-shot freshman, Tanner Wozniak; adequate perimeter fire power?

Isiah, never short on critics, seems to receive the most plaudits from the people that know him the best, like two-time former Detroit Piston NBA champion and All-Star backcourt mate, Joe Dumars.
"Isiah is doing a tremendous job at FIU and they're real fortunate to have him leading the way," said Joe Dumars, president of Basketball Operations for the Detroit Pistons. "His passion, knowledge and love for the game of basketball are infectious and his ability to teach the game will benefit each player that steps on the floor to play at FIU."

FIU's first test will take place on November 14th, as they face NCAA post-season juggernaut and 2006 Final Four finalist George Mason, in the NIT Season Tip-Off.

At age 50, Isiah still possesses that charismatic smile he displayed time and time again in the winning locker-room back in the glory days, after methodically eviscerating teams that passed through his cross-hairs with clutch late game jump shots, Bonnie and Clyde-like game clinching thefts, and theatrical game winning passes that would draw eyes from even Tom Brady.  FIU hoop fans hope this will be the season Isiah instills this quality into the FIU basketball team.

Check out the College Sports Madness exclusive question and answer session with FIU Coach Isiah Thomas and College Sports Madness writer Scott Brand.