Utah women’s basketball coach Lynn Roberts said last Friday that her team had changed hotels for the NCAA Tournament due to safety concerns after experiencing a series of “racial hate crimes” the night before. Ta.
Utah’s original team hotel was in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, more than 30 miles east of Spokane’s McCarthy Athletic Center. The NCAA and host school Gonzaga helped the Utes move to another hotel for the remainder of their stay.
Roberts revealed what happened Monday night after the fifth-seeded Utes lost 77-66 in the second round to fourth-seeded Gonzaga. Utah’s coach called the incident “shocking” and “nobody knew how to deal with it.”
“I was really upset,” Roberts said. “It’s difficult for our players and staff not to feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, so we’ve relocated the hotel.”
Roberts did not go into detail about the conditions the team endured, but Utah State’s acting director of athletics Sharmell Green said: Share details with KSL.com on Monday night. Green said the basketball team was walking to a restaurant to eat dinner when the driver of a white truck pulled up, revved up the engine and sped away, yelling the N-word at the team. .
“We were all in shock and we looked at each other and were like, ‘Did you just hear that?'” Green told KSL.com.
The team had dinner and faced a similar situation when leaving the restaurant. This time, Green told KSL.com, the drivers of the two trucks were revving their engines in an intimidating manner, again shouting the N-word at the team.
An NCAA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Yahoo Sports.gonzaga condemned the incident Roberts clarified what happened and said his top priority was the safety and well-being of NCAA Tournament participants.
“We are frustrated and extremely disappointed to learn that what was an otherwise great visitor’s championship experience was in some way marred by this situation,” Gonzaga’s head coach said in a statement. .
The Utah women’s team initially had to stay in Coeur d’Alene because Spokane had a limited number of hotel rooms available. A few years ago, Spokane was announced last weekend as one of the host cities for the first and second rounds of the men’s NCAA Tournament.
Roberts acknowledged that what the team has endured has made it difficult for Utah players to focus on games against South Dakota State and Gonzaga.
“It was distracting, upsetting and disappointing,” she said.
