Men's Basketball

UH closes book on Salinas, others still involved

UH might be in the clear, but the David Salinas drama continues.

Salinas, 60, an AAU basketball coach and investment adviser, caused a ruckus in the college hoops world last week after committing suicide at his Friendswood home. Salinas had been under investigation for fraudulent practices by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and had business relationships with several prominent head basketball coaches including former Arizona coach Lute Olson, head Baylor coach Scott Drew, Texas Tech head coach Billy Gillispie and Gonzaga head coach Mark Few.

Former head UH basketball coach Pat Foster and past head football coaches Bill Yeoman and Art Briles also invested with Salinas.

ESPN’s Andy Katz reported Sunday that a group of the coaches who invested with Salinas’ company, J. David Financial, met in Las Vegas to discuss how to possibly recover some of their funds lost to his alleged Ponzi scheme. Katz reports that the meeting is solely about private financial matters and not about whether Salinas helped steer players to their schools.

The coaches in attendance were not named, but Katz did report that they were evaluating the situation with Dennis Coleman and Chris Green of the Boston-based law firm Ropes and Gray.

KRIV’s Marc Berman reported Wednesday that the NCAA would investigate Salinas’ dealings with coaches financially involved with him.

The NCAA will not be looking into the University’s relationship with Salinas though. The Athletics Department has already conducted its own internal review and found no violations.

“After our initial internal review, we have not discovered any compliance issues related to David Salinas and his AAU Houston Select program,” athletics director Mack Rhoades said in a statement on Wednesday.

From 1992-2002, eight players from Salinas’ AAU team, Houston Select, played for UH.

Berman quoted former Cougar Moses Malone Jr, who said that the NCAA contacted him, but that Salinas did not push him to sign with UH.

Salinas was a donor and season-ticket holder for the Cougars. The Houston Chronicle reported that he contributed $202,069 to the the UH athletics department.

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