FIU Craved National Attention but `Zeke' was a Zero as College Coach

When Isiah Thomas was hired by budget-busted FIU (don't call us Florida International), "Zeke" said with his trademark engaging smile he would coach his first collegiate season for free. Based on the ensuing not-worth-a-nickel results (26-65, .286), he should have also coached gratis the next two years before parting ways with the less-than-Golden Panthers.

Hiring Thomas, a 12-time NBA All-Star with the Detroit Pistons, was the ultimate desperate move for attention - good, bad or ugly; mainly bad and ugly. It occurred not long after a jury decided in the fall of 2007 that Thomas sexually harassed a former New York Knicks team executive, subjecting the former Northwestern women's basketball player to unwanted advances and a barrage of vulgarity (Madison Square Garden eventually settled with the married mother of three for $11.5 million and Thomas maintained his innocence). Thomas, in a deposition he claims was edited in a manner misconstruing his remarks, said it is more offensive for a white man to call a black woman a _itch than for a black man to use the same insult describing the same female.

Smiling or not, Thomas can't possibly plead innocent to his black-and-white anemic record with FIU being even worse than his 56-108 mark as coach of the Knicks in his two seasons with them in 2006-07 and 2007-08 amid the tawdry trial. Previously, the CBA almost disbanded after Thomas purchased the minor league before selling his interest in 2000. CBA executives said Thomas was "rude. . . . very poor business person. . . . doesn't listen to people. . . . makes poor decisions."

At this stage, FIU resembles the McDonald's worker who claims she lost the winning Mega Millions ticket. Hitching its wagon to Thomas, who failed to generate any meaningful increase in attendance and seemed more interested in trying to keep his ties with the NBA as a Knicks consultant before backing off, made it the acronym equivalent to Foolish Idolatry U.

Prior to delusionally handing control over to the culture of personality, FIU and other schools should realize that Indiana's Branch McCracken is the only one of the following 47 All-Americans who became major-college mentors to compile a higher winning percentage as a coach:

*Active coaches.