Former Lobo Douma-Sanchez to play for junior college; Pitino dropped from lawsuit

For former Del Norte High School point guard Shane Douma-Sanchez, it’s a new start, playing basketball at a junior college in the Pacific Northwest.

And for Richard Pitino, the former head coach of the Lobos now coaching at Xavier University in Cincinnati, it’s a release from the still-pending lawsuit Douma-Sanchez filed against the University of New Mexico in December claiming he had been assaulted by a teammate on a team trip to California.

In the case of the latter, independent of what may ultimately be decided in court, State District Judge Elaine P. Lujan granted a motion filed by attorneys representing Pitino and UNM asking that the coach be dropped from the suit, noting that while the university can be sued, there is nothing in the New Mexico Civil Rights Act that allows for a university employee to be sued for allegations that never suggested he was acting outside his role as a university employee.

“Plaintiff’s NMCRA claim against Defendant Richard Pitino in his individual capacity must, therefore, be dismissed with prejudice (meaning it cannot be refiled),” Lujan wrote in her Aug. 26 order filed in state district court.

Douma-Sanchez, a walk-on guard for the UNM men’s basketball program, quit the team in November after he says teammate Tru Washington, now a guard at the University of Miami, punched him on a team trip and that the coaching staff was responsible for creating an “unsafe environment” that led to the incident.

There have been no criminal charges filed and no indication from UNM that any discipline was even found to be warranted after an internal investigation, though the University will not comment on the lawsuit specifically while still pending.

There is a Wednesday hearing set for the case that is said to address, among other motions, one that Douma-Sanchez’s legal team filed asking that Washington be added to the lawsuit. He was initially left off the civil suit intentionally, but then Douma- Sanchez’s lawyers filed a motion in March to include him.

Washington has not been charged with a crime in the case.

Another matter set to be addressed Wednesday is a motion UNM’s legal team filed seeking sanctions against Douma- Sanchez’s attorneys with Parnall & Adams Law for filing a motion months after the initial lawsuit was filed that added “baseless claims and new defendants for improper purposes, including delay, harassment and publicity.”

Just last week, meanwhile, the head basketball coach of Lower Columbia College, a junior college in Longview, Washington, signed Douma-Sanchez to the team for this coming season.

“Happy to have (Douma-Sanchez) join the Red Devils!” Mickey Polis wrote on his X account with an image of Douma-Sanchez in his Del Norte Knights uniform. “He had an outstanding prep career where he was a two time Mr. Basketball in the state of New Mexico as well as making three 4A All-State Teams. Happy to have Shane join our program.”

Douma-Sanchez did not play a game for the Lobos in the two years he was at UNM.