ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A University of New Mexico basketball player claims a teammate punched him multiple times on a flight to a Thanksgiving tournament in California. 

“I’m not going to get into any specifics on that. Cannot comment on any of those specific things,” said Richard Pitino, the UNM head coach of the men’s basketball team. “I’m not going to get any of the specifics on it.”

KOB 4 first told you about those allegations Monday. Now, we’re hearing from the attorney representing the alleged victim. 

We first contacted attorney David Adams on Monday after a family member of the alleged victim contacted KOB 4. On Tuesday, Adams identified that alleged victim as Shane Douma-Sanchez, a walk-on from Laguna Pueblo who played high school basketball at Del Norte.

“We are working with the University of New Mexico to seek some accountability but also seek resolution to what looks like a preventable nightmare,” said Adams in a statement. “It’s a very scary and sad situation. The gaslighting has been sad to see and hear. Shane is an outstanding young man, and it’s really unfortunate to watch this happen when his life goal has been to play with the Lobos.”

Pitino addressed the allegations Tuesday. 

“To kind of address the current situation, your university has issued a statement. We will follow those protocols. There’s not a whole lot I can talk about, we are handling any discipline matters internally. But other than that, there’s not a whole lot I could say specifically,” said Pitino. 

Douma-Sanchez is a redshirt freshman who is out with a shoulder injury. We spoke with a family member on Monday who claims another player assaulted Douma-Sanchez twice on the holiday tournament trip.

The first time was allegedly during the flight to the Acrisure Classic in Palm Springs. The relative claims a scholarship player allegedly punched Douma-Sanchez because of where he was sitting on the plane.

Later at the hotel, the family told us the same player punched Douma-Sanchez again.

His family claims the coaching staff did not take the allegation seriously, and Douma-Sanchez came back to Albuquerque and went to the hospital about a potential reinjury.

We asked Pitino on Tuesday how he’s keeping the team on track as this all unfolds.

“Just coach the team, you know what I mean? You just coach each practice the same and you have the same approach every single day. And that’s what we did yesterday. We took off Saturday and Sunday. Today is Tuesday, so we had a great practice yesterday. Great. We’ll, hopefully, have a great practice today,” Pitino said. 

Adams told us both sides are investigating.

While we know the other player’s identity, we’re still not naming him because at this point, the university hasn’t confirmed it.

We reached out to the attorney for the player accused of punching Douma-Sanchez. That attorney told us, “no matter how hard you try to spin a lie into the truth, it just won’t get there.”

The men’s team is playing Wednesday evening at The Pit.

The university also held a news conference Wednesday morning to announce the new athletic director, Fernando Lovo. During the news conference, Lovo said he spoke with Pitino and that he can’t comment further on the situation, which predated his time as athletic director. Lovo added he’s following UNM’s protocols and procedures.

UNM issued this statement on the protocol for situations like these:

“The University has protocols and policies in place to address allegations of student misconduct, as outlined by the student and student-athlete codes of conduct. The policies are also guided by all applicable state and federal laws. As detailed in the codes of conduct, there are multiple procedures to review an incident. To protect the integrity of the ongoing process, the University will not issue public comment but will share information when allowed under the law and when it does not jeopardize the process.”