Isiah Thomas has been fired as head coach of FIU after three seasons coaching the Miami university's men's basketball team.
Isiah Thomas has been fired as head coach of FIU after three seasons coaching the Miami university's men's basketball team. Reuters

Isiah Thomas has been fired as head coach of FIU after three seasons coaching the Miami university's men's basketball team.

Thomas' tenure at Florida International University was a resounding failure, as the Golden Panthers were a dismal 26-65 under their former head coach.

FIU's records under Thomas were 7-25, 11-19 and 8-21 over the last three years.

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

Thomas was hired in 2009 after his disastrous tenure as president of basketball operations and head coach of the New York Knicks -- years marked by bad trades and free-agent signings that doomed the Knicks for nearly a decade under Thomas' control.

The Miami school was hoping Thomas' name recognition would bring in high-quality recruits, but the Isiah Thomas experiment failed miserably.

Thomas' connection with the school did give FIU more visibility, but it never translated into wins, as FIU never won more than 11 games in a season with Isiah at the helm.

Here are five things to know about FIU:

1. Famous alumni

Among FIU's alumni are actor Andy Garcia, former MLB third baseman Mike Lowell, Mystic River and Shutter Island author Dennis Lehane and Florida congresswoman Illeana Ros-Lehtinen.

2. Football

Former FIU football coach Mario Cristobal took a fledgling team into a competitive squad. In 2010, the FIU Golden Panthers took a share of the Sun Belt Conference title and made an appearance in their first bowl game - a win in the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl over the Toledo Rockets. The team followed that up with a second bowl appearance -- a loss in the Beef O'Brady's Bowl against Marshall.

3. Law School

Nearly 90 percent of FIU Law School students passed the Florida Bar exam in 2009.

4. MBA program

FIU has a one-year international MBA program that is ranked fourth in the country.

5. Renowned for international business program

The school's undergraduate international business program was ranked 15th in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges.

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