Ruben Douglas, who spent his freshman year with the Arizona basketball team in the late 1990s before transferring to New Mexico and starring for the Lobos as the nation’s top scorer in 2003, died earlier this week, according to a report from one of his former teams and a release from the University of New Mexico.
Douglas was 44.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Ruben’s family, friends and former teammates,” New Mexico athletic director Eddie Nunez said in a university-issued release. “He was a tremendous Lobo and was recently honored with his inclusion on the Mountain West’s 25th-season team. Ruben will be missed.”
Douglas, who averaged 8.0 points while appearing in 27 games in 1998-99 for Arizona, blossomed as a scorer in three seasons with the Lobos. His scoring average jumped from 16.3 points per game to 18.1, topping out at an NCAA-best 28.0 in his senior season.
Douglas’ former Italian club, Fortitudo Bologna, was the first to report the news. As reported by the Albuquerque Journal: “The Italian team posted a story on its website Friday with the translated headline: ‘A phone call that freezes our blood. No, Ruben, no...’ In it, again translated from Italian via an online translator service, it states, ‘a sudden health problem was fatal to him a few days ago in Costa Rica.’”
New Mexico’s Ruben Douglas (5) works against Utah’s Bryant Markson during the second half of a game at The Pit in Albuquerque on March 1, 2003. Douglas scored 39 points to help New Mexico upset No. 22 Utah 76-69.
A 6-5 guard from Altadena, California, Douglas wasn’t drafted into the NBA after his senior year at UNM in 2002-03. He did parlay his college success into an eight-year international career, leading Fortitudo Bologna to the 2005 Italian League title. A year later, he was the EuroCup finals MVP while leading Dynamo Moscow (Russia) to the EuroCup crown.
Douglas also represented Panama at the 2006 FIBA World Championships.
Per UNM’s release, Douglas, a three-time All-Mountain West selection, holds school records for 20-point games (49), consecutive 20-point games (16) and consecutive 30-point games (5).
In addition to Bologna (Italy) and Moscow (Russia), Douglas’ international career took him to Greece (Panionios), where he averaged a career-best 20.0 points per game in his first pro season in 2003-04. He also played for Lottomatica Roma (Italy), Pamesa Valencia (Spain) and Cajasol (Spain).
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