Isiah Thomas knew his Florida International team would struggle to keep up with defending national champion North Carolina, much less beat the sixth-ranked Tar Heels.

He also heard the handful of taunts from the home fans, including one invoking the name of a fellow Hall of Fame player who spoke negatively of Thomas in a recent book.

And yet, Thomas was smiling after his college coaching debut ended in a lopsided loss.

"Actually, it was great," Thomas said after the 88-72 loss in the 2K Sports Classic on Monday night. "The college fans are great, the sayings they come up with. I was walking off one end and all I heard was 'Magic! Magic!' You can't beat it, right?

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"I gave them a nice salute. I started to blow them a kiss, but I didn't want to do that."

The Tar Heels were too big and just too talented for the Golden Panthers, serving a reminder that Thomas could be in for a frustrating debut season with the long-struggling FIU program.

Deon Thompson scored 20 points and was one of four players in double-figures for North Carolina (1-0), which shot 56 percent and dominated the boards after halftime to kick off its centennial season against Thomas - the Hall of Fame player and former NBA coach who inherits a program with nine straight losing seasons.

But for Thomas, it was a start. He didn't seem fazed by the loss, remaining relaxed as he entered the postgame press conference and even telling reporters, "I'm not quite sure how this works in college. Somebody's going to have to kind of coach me through it."

His debut came on the same day his 86-year-old mother, Mary, had open-heart surgery in Chicago. He spent Sunday with her, then arrived in Chapel Hill early Monday for the Golden Panthers' shootaround at the Smith Center. He planned to return to Chicago on Tuesday.

"My mom raised me basically to fight, just as I'm trying to put it in our team," Thomas said. "Last night, when I was speaking to her, she just said she doesn't want to die. And she's going to fight to live. With that, she told me to go to work and fight for our team."

Marvin Roberts had 18 points for the Golden Panthers (0-1), who shot 37 percent. North Carolina led 46-30 at halftime, then pushed the margin to 25 points in the first 5 minutes of the second half to eliminate any chance of a Hollywood-esque story line for Thomas.

Still, he tried to find a way to keep it close, ordering his players to spread the floor and make the bigger Tar Heels defend all the way to the perimeter.

"During the game, I actually went over there and asked why he tried to spread the floor and drive our big guys," Thompson said. "He just started laughing and said, 'Man, that's the only thing I can do.' That's a pretty good coaching decision when you've got so many big guys on the floor."