By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Sports Writer

MIAMI(AP) -- Isiah Thomas knows what his first FIU pregame speech
will entail. He'll gather players Monday night, just before they
take the court to open the season against defending national
champion North Carolina.

The talk will be quick.

"God help us all," Thomas predicted he'll say, fearing a rout.

In time, the plan will be for Thomas and FIU to help each other.

If ever a team needed revitalizing, it's FIU, with nine straight
losing seasons and a record over that span that doesn't even
rank among the top 300 Division I programs. So here to lead this
colossal challenge comes a Basketball Hall of Fame player, an
icon in the game, whose last stop with the New York Knicks began
with spectacular fanfare and ended amid a spectacular flameout.

FIU views this as a reinvention of its program.

Thomas views this as a reinvention of himself.

"Our goal is to be a good basketball team by March," Thomas
said. "If these guys keep working, I think we've got a shot."

Ah, a coach's optimism. But make no mistake, Thomas understands
the enormity of this challenge, which starts in Chapel Hill,
N.C. against the sixth-ranked Tar Heels. Thomas' collegiate
playing career at Indiana ended with a win over North Carolina
in the 1981 NCAA title game, but deep down inside, knows that
Monday could be a long, long, long night.

"You've got to get the players first," said Rollie Massimino,
who coached Villanova to the 1985 NCAA title and is now the
coach at NAIA school Northwood in West Palm Beach, Fla., a
little over an hour north of FIU's campus.

Northwood beat FIU 71-61 in an exhibition game Wednesday night.
It wasn't a fluke, either.

"Isiah will get the kids," said Massimino, who gets his brain
picked by Thomas regularly these days. "He will. He'll do a
great job."

Everyone, Thomas included, knows that job will take time.

FIU has produced two current NBA players (Carlos Arroyo, Raja
Bell) but somehow lacks any sort of basketball identity. The
home court is a gym more than an arena, the Golden Panthers have
lost 20 games in three of the past four seasons, and since their
last - and only - NCAA tournament trip in 1995, 230 different
schools have qualified for the Big Dance, while FIU keeps
waiting 'til next year.

A year ago, FIU was 13-20. The last winning season was a decade
ago, the last 20-win season was in 1997-98.

"It's time for us to turn that around," said guard Marvin
Roberts, a junior college transfer who said he "immediately"
picked FIU when Thomas made the recruiting call.

It took a perfect storm of downfall for Thomas to find his way
to Miami.

When FIU first asked him to visit, Thomas had no plans to take
the job. He thought it would be a three- or four-day paid
getaway out of New York, a chance to reconnect with some friends
and play some golf. His reputation and pride were stung from the
tumultuous end of his time with the Knicks, debacles that
included a sexual harassment lawsuit, "Fire Isiah!" chants at
Madison Square Garden and being found unconscious in his home by
rescue workers after taking sleeping pills last fall.

His intrigue built quickly. On April 13, the deal was done. That
night, team was summoned to meet its new coach.

"Isiah Thomas? THE Isiah Thomas? Here?" was how fifth-year
senior forward Marlon Bright remembered his initial thought
process. "Somebody with his resume truly has a lot of options
when it comes to basketball. So it's already been a surreal
experience."

Thomas had little time to recruit for this season. His efforts
for the 2010-11 season, though, have already been noticed around
the country, with a handful of players on the top-100 lists
already saying they'll sign with FIU.

Clearly, if Thomas wasn't there, that wouldn't be happening.

"He's been very open with us about everything," Bright said. "He
strikes all of us as someone you can really trust. What's out
there is what's out there. We know him for who he is. He's a man
who looks you in the eye and shakes your hand and wants you to
be better."

Thomas expects there to be some long nights this season, and his
roster has some glaring holes, particularly in its amazing lack
of size - only one rotation player might be taller than
6-foot-6.

So he's already eyeing the end of the season: Thomas can
envision FIU going to the Sun Belt Conference tournament,
playing its best basketball, and taking its chances.

"By the time January, February gets here, I hope we're a pretty
solid unit," Thomas said. "If we're a good unit going into
conference play, then we'll take our chances with the four games
in March. And if we win the four games in March, then it's a
good year."

Thomas signed a five-year contract, one that doesn't have him
drawing a base salary this season.

He does not regret it, insisting despite his fame and fortune,
he remains a simple guy with simple needs.

There's no glitz and glamour; postgame dinner for the team
Wednesday wasn't the catered delights the Knicks would enjoy on
their custom charter jet, but rather a pile of pizzas delivered
from a chain restaurant. And FIU does most of its travel by bus,
something else for Thomas to get used to.

"We're starting from the bottom. We want to go to the top,"
Thomas said. "And the journey, the ride along the way, is the
most important thing. ... The journey, to me, that's the most
enjoyable part. This is the fun part. It starts now."