Attorney for alleged victim speaks on incident involving UNM men’s basketball team
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 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 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.
The men’s team is playing at The Pit Wednesday evening. The university is also holding a news conference Wednesday morning to announce the new athletic director, so we will wait and see if this is addressed then as well.