In a superbly titled New York Post article, "Isiah Making Enemies In New FIU Job," Marc Berman explains the troubles that Thomas is having, even though he's been on the job for less than a month:
The former Knicks president/coach is being accused of tactless behavior in failing to personally phone three FIU recruits to inform them they were no longer wanted despite scholarship offers from the past regime.
Wolfson High coach Greg Rosebrock threatened to close the door for Thomas to recruit at his Jacksonville school because of how his player, Chris Rozier, was treated.
"From Jacksonville, to Orlando to Pensacola, there's a lot of coaches in Florida not happy with him right now," Rosebrock told The Post. "He's not making friends here. I understand not wanting him but place a phone call and do it in a professional way."
As it turns out, Thomas "did not call the kids because he was under the impression he would be under NCAA violation. Thomas just took his compliance tests and thought he was not allowed to speak to high school students."
How's that for on-the-job training? Not only is Thomas breaking commitments from FIU, but he's angering several high school coaches in the very state that he's coaching and trying to recruit in.
I can't say I'm terribly shocked by this development, but apparently Thomas wasn't interested in using all of the resources at his disposal. And on that note, Eamonn Brennan of Yahoo! Sports's The Dagger has some advice for Thomas: "Caution is great, man, but FIU has a compliance department, right? Give them a visit. Sit down for a chat. Figure out what you can and can't do, and then get back out there and start building those bridges again."
Or maybe this whole thing will only snowball because, you know, Isiah Thomas is now running a college basketball program.
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