The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 13-20 (7-11 Sun Belt)

2009-10's toughest games: at North Carolina, at Florida State, at Western Kentucky

Primary attraction: Having failed at both the semi-pro and professional level, Isiah Thomas brings his special brand of ignominy and mismanagement to a middling college basketball program. This ought to be good.

Three items of undeniable interest:

1. Isiah, Isiah, Isiah. I don't really have to explain this, so let's keep it brief. Isiah Thomas's stint as general manager and then coach of the New York Knicks can reasonably be called one of the worst in the history of the NBA. Thomas didn't just fail on the court, or with the clipboard. He managed to balloon the Knicks' salary to league-leading levels (for much of his tenure, it wasn't even close) on players that didn't resemble anything remotely close to a team. He took on the contracts of Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis at the same time. He put Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry in the same frontcourt. His best skill, scouting and drafting, was usually wasted on second-round role players like Renaldo Balkman, because the Knicks had trade all their picks away to the Bulls. (For example.) He was legendarily awful. (He also got himself into a sexual harassment mess, which is a whole 'nother ballgame altogether.)

How does that awfulness translate to the college game? Does Zeke's eye for talent win out? Does college basketball's inherent restrictions against giving a surly, overweight player a contract extension keep Zeke safe? Or does the whole "finding talent and coaching it" thing -- universal to both enterprises -- doom Zeke to another failure?

None of these questions will get answers in year one, but at least we'll be able to mark Isiah's progress. At this point, merely making it through a season without some sort of calamitous disaster would seem an improvement.

2. Welcome to the big show, Zeke. Thomas won't get much time to prepare before his new team is thrown to the Lions of the college hoops world. On Nov. 9, FIU plays at North Carolina. Oof. This was a minor point of contention in the offseason, when Thomas and AD Pete Garcia threatened to back out of their contractual agreement with the tournament organizers because they said they were promised a game against Ohio State. Really, they were promised a game against either OSU or UNC, and FIU brass soon fell in line. As bad as it seems, really, this is a no-lose situation for Thomas. No one expects FIU to win, and he gets some national attention for his program to boot. And if they do make it tough for UNC at home, all the better.

3. Isiah Thomas can afford to give up his salary. When he took his job at FIU, Thomas volunteered to give up his first year's salary thanks to the slumping economy and the fact that he is already a pretty wealthy guy. Nice gesture, but he won't exactly be starving; between Thomas's pro days, his GM stints and his coaching gigs, Zeke's got some money saved away. But more than anything, Zeke owes his fortune to a very Magic Johnson-esque business endeavor: Dale and Thomas popcorn! I won't even make a joke about the popcorn being overpaid and lazy; that soil has been scorched by now. Anyway, the point was ... eh, I didn't really have a point. I'm just really hungry and wanted to talk about popcorn for a second. Mmm. Popcorn.

Bonus: From the "Ahhh, simpler days" file:

Thomas' post-playing days have been of fail. You get it. So let's for a moment remember when Isiah Thomas was one of the best players on the planet:

Related: Mid-Majors and Below, The Hunt