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"There's a sense of great opportunity and great struggle that you're feeling here," said Thomas, who will make his official debut Monday, when FIU visits North Carolina in a 7 p.m. game to be nationally televised on ESPNU.

He is starting over at a commuter school with no basketball tradition, hoping to mend his relationship with the sport that made him famous.

"I don't think there's a need to redeem," he said. "I think there's a need to remind."