More NCAA Corruption

[tornado]

This story is just breaking --

The sudden death of a Houston area legend -- a guy who founded and ran one of the largest high school summer basketball & AAU programs in the nation is opening up several cans of worms...

David Salinas was the founder of the Houston area summer basketball programs but...
He was also a power broker, a middleman, a guy capable of dealing influence and guiding some of the incredibly rich Houston area talent your way...
But he also worked for an investment firm and was running an illegal Ponzi scheme and keeping a lot of the money sent to him...

So -- soon after his death -- SEC (the FEDERAL Securities and Exchange) officials as well as probate officials are trying to sort out why lots of TOP college coaches were sending this guy MONEY to invest in the brokerage firm he worked at...
and yet Salinas was NOT investing the dough but was doing his own thing with it -- fraudulently!!

Yup -- you got it.... follow the money --
Top college coaches like Lute Olson, Scott Drew, Billy Gillispie, and East Peoria native Ray Giacoletti, Doc Sadler, Willis Wilson and many, many more -- none of whom lived near nor had any reason to choose an investment firm in Houston -- were sending money to Salinas to invest....supposedly...
and I am sure NONE of them expected any favors in return......rrrright.....

Every one of those coaches have landed kids from Houston recently!!

"it's unclear how the NCAA would view college coaches who invested money
with the founder of a summer basketball program that supplied recruits to
several college programs through the years."

"Lots of coaches had money with him, but they're going to try to deny it
and just hope it doesn't come out."

http://college-basketball-blog.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/26283066/30683502

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=sportsxchange-000364127_report-death-of-summer-league-founder-raises-questions

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkc/men/7657991.html

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90054513?Financial%20advisor%20accused%20of%20fraud%20found%20dead%3B%20suicide%20suspected

http://www.conquestchronicles.com/2011/7/17/2280467/the-ncaa-may-have-another-issue-to-look-at

[sousaman2089]

In other news: the sky is blue.

Every day, just like the rising sun, brings another NCAA scandal.

[Da Coach]

Big NCAA story

It seems the biggest college basketball story right now is one that may have more news yet to come-

60 year old Houston native David Salinas, who was the head of one of the country's best known, most prominent, and successful AAU basketball programs, and was also an investment adviser, apparently committed suicide this past weekend. He had apparently become the target of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraudlent investment practices. It turns out many people invested large sums of money with the man, and may have lost their investments in the apparent scam. He founded and ran the Houston Select AAU program, and many top national players have come through that program. Even one of Bradley's players, Anthony Thompson, played for Houston Select, as did many other kids that Bradley has recruited. But curiously, many of the inverstors who lost big sums of money in this man's scam were prominent college basketball coaches.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/sports/110718-david-salinas-death

As the investigation into David Salinas' death continues, we may learn more about his investment scheme, and why so many top college basketball coaches from all over the country chose to invest money with the man.
The Houston Chronical has this article today that begins to shed some light on what may be a fraudulent scheme to channel top high school basketball talent (from the Houston Select program) to big time college programs in return for the money the coaches invested-

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkc/men/7657991.html

A former NCAA basketball coach said he was approached by local AAU coach and investment adviser David Salinas for "a significant sum of money" to invest in exchange for steering players from his AAU program.

"He hinted he could steer players my way," the coach told the Chronicle on Monday. "I never got involved with him, period."

Already the names of a number of college coaches have surfaced as having invested with this man-
Former Rice coach Scott Thompson, former Houston coach Pat Foster, former Arizona coach Lute Olson, Baylor coach Scott Drew, Texas Tech coach Billy Gillispie, Nebraska coach Doc Sadler, former Utah coach Ray Giacoletti, former Rice coach Willis Wilson, now the coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi among others.

I suspect this may not be the last we hear about this.
Since it appears mostly BCS schools are the ones involved, will the NCAA be interested in investigating this potentially illegal recruiting scheme? And how much more of this kind of illegal back-door, kickback stuff goes on between college coaches and AAU directors? I think most of us know the answer.

A couple more new articles-

http://beyondthearc.nbcsports.com/2011/07/17/a-financial-investigation-that-could-worry-some-coaches/

http://www.aseaofblue.com/2011/7/18/...mer-basketball

http://www.big12hoops.com/2011/7/18/...tt-drew-baylor

[tornado]

money sent from college coaches 1000 miles away to this guy in Houston --
then a Houston player under this guy's program commits to that coach's school ---
then the money he sent never actually gets invested or put where it's supposed to go --
-- it just gets kept and spent as if it was money under the table to Salinas --
Hmmm....

[Da Coach]

More news on this scandal. Some coaches had millions of dollars invested with David Salinas and may have lost it all-

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/07/19/coaches.investment/index.html

[it's boogie time]

One name of interest is former Wichita State coach Mark Turgeon. His last Shocker team had three players from the Houston area.

[tornado]

ah ha -- the first real Valley connections --

The guy who was Wichita State's head basketball coach just before Mark Turgeon, Scott Thompson, is tied to this swindle...and interestingly Wichita State has landed Houston Select talent...
However -- to include Mark Turgeon is a little premature -- as so far I see nothing to hint Turgeon was investiong with Salinas...

[wily coyote]

Also close to home. Augie head coach Grey Giovanine's name has been mentioned. Report says he invested $533,000. Grey was the head coach at Rice several years back. He is also a good friend of Scott Thompson's, who also invested with Salinas. Scott was a Moline high grad who also coached at Rice. Scott's father was the head coach at Moline HS and was replaced by Chuck Westendorf.This will be interesting to follow and to see how the NCAA handles at this situation.

[it's boogie time]

However -- to include Mark Turgeon is a little premature -- as so far I see nothing to hint Turgeon was investiong with Salinas...

Moses Malone Jr was interviewed by an NCAA investigator and they asked him about 10 players and 10 coaches involving the late David Salinas. One of them was Mark Turgeon. If they are asking about him, I don't think it is premature.

[tornado]

Texas Tech fans must be really bummed --
-they had high hopes when Bobby Knight was brought in..but his mediocre performance there plus his son's terrible job on Bobby's heels....
-plus their silly "reality show" about the Texas Tech walk-on
-and the controversy then lawsuits swirling around their football coach being fired...

Now this -- their newly hired coach, Billy Gillispie, is immediately embroiled in controversy.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/college/7660701.html

[TheGuy]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...d-salinas-scam

Story makes ESPN.

It's interesting that all of these coaches are saying that they are not a part of some conspiracy recruiting scheme.

I can't wait until we find out next that some of these players who have been steered had investments purchased for them at this guys firm. Those stocks/bonds are just as good as cash and its definitely a convenient way for them to make those transactions straight to players.

[tornado]

More people coming forward to confirm that Salinas was running a pay for play recruiting scam

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/ua/articles/2011/07/20/20110720arizona-wildcats-lute-olson-david-salinas-ponzi-scheme.html

[tornado]

but the schools that are implicated are investigating themselves and saying they are clean....duhh...

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketball/2011/7/21/2287036/david-salinas-investigation-houston-basketball-aau

[it's boogie time]

It looks like the list of Valley connections is growing

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/pablo_torre/07/26/Salinas.investment.scandal/

Tim Jankovich -- current Illinois State head basketball coach: $184,000

[tornado]

it was just a matter of time..
BTW -- Jank's Houston select AAU connection is that when Chamberlain Oguchi was at Oregon -- he suddenly up and left and transferred to ISU to play for Jankovich...
and Oguchi is a Houston Select player who played for Salinas.....

"David Salinas, is good friends with first-year ISU coach Tim Jankovich, who has coached and heavily recruited in Texas.
Thanks to that connection, Oguchi visited ISU in the spring. ..
Chamberlain Oguchi's route from Oregon to Illinois went right through Texas. Illinois State's basketball team added ..Oguchi..joined the Redbirds.

"A native of Houston,Oguchi.....attended his first classes on the ISU campus Wednesday..."

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/article_0fcb325a-00c4-5bed-9e0e-1c3c753192c4.html#ixzz1TJtIXJKI