UT DALLAS ATHLETICS HALL OF HONORS
MARTIN SALINAS
(Men’s Basketball 2003-07)
MARTIN SALINAS finished his UT Dallas men’s basketball career as the Comets’ all-time leading scorer with 1,336 points. One of the best outside shooters in program history, Salinas set school records by hitting 272-of-736 three-pointers during his four-year career, and also holds several other school records.
Salinas was a member of the first four UT Dallas teams to qualify for the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament, leading the Comets to their first ASC Championship in 2005. Salinas was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2005 tournament, scoring 63 points in three tournament games as the sixth-seeded Comets pulled off three straight upsets, including a win over heavily-favored Mississippi College in the title game.
Salinas set career records for steals (136) and games played (101), and single-season records with 490 points and an 18.8-points per game average in 2006-07. He was selected first-team ASC All-East Division in 2007 and was a second-team selection in 2006.
Salinas came to UT Dallas in 2003 after an all-district career at Alief (Texas) Hastings High School, where his team won a district championship. He chose UT Dallas because of its academic reputation, and earned a Business Administration degree in 2007.
Following graduation, Salinas played one year of professional basketball for the City of Victoria Roadrunners in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional, the top professional league in Mexico. He returned to the Dallas area, where he began teaching private basketball skills lessons to local youth players and later founded the Panther Pack Basketball Program, which now has grown to one of the largest youth basketball programs in Texas. Salinas currently leads an organization that includes 15 different basketball teams for boys and girls from kindergarten to high school.
