Former Hoosier Thomas fired at FIU, players upset

Former Indiana basketball player Isiah Thomas was fired this past weekend as the head coach for Florida International.

In his three seasons as the coach for the Golden Panthers, the team went 26-65, never winning more than 11 games in a season. In the 2011-12 season, FIU
went 8-21.

Thomas, who spent two seasons under former coach Bob Knight, was fired in a simple statement.

“We want to thank Isiah Thomas for his three years here at FIU,” said Director of Sports and Entertainment Pete Garcia. “However, we have decided to take the program in a
different direction.”

At the end-of-the-year banquet for the basketball team Monday, the entire team got up and walked out as a highlight reel of the season came on.

Freshman Tanner Wozniak said a couple of seniors suggested the players walk out to show the university the team is upset about Thomas being fired Friday.

“We didn’t want to disrespect the program at all or anything,” Wozniak told Yahoo! Sports. “We just wanted to show support for Isiah Thomas. He was a great coach, a mentor and a father figure to us. He didn’t have a winning record, but you can’t build a program in three years.”