Before their first NCAA tournament game, the Utah women’s basketball team had to move hotels due to what head coach Lynne Roberts referred to as “racial hate crimes.” The assaults happened last week while the team was staying at a motel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, according to Roberts. This occurred before a thirty-mile-distance first-round matchup with South Dakota State in Spokane, Washington. Roberts told reporters on Monday, “We had several instances of some kind of racial hate crimes towards our program, and (it was) incredibly upsetting for all of us.”
Utah Women’s Basketball Overcame South Dakota But Fell Short Against Gongaza
“On a college campus, there is so much diversity, and you’re just not exposed to that very often,” she continued. There is racism. It takes place. It’s terrible. Therefore, nobody understood how to deal with our players—whether they were White, Black, Green, or anything else. It was rather distressing.
In the first round of the Women’s Basketball Tournament, Utah overcame South Dakota State on Saturday, but on Monday, they fell short against Gonzaga, 77-66. Gonzaga and Utah have been approached by CNN for more comments. Although the specifics of the alleged racist occurrences remain unknown, Gonzaga suggested that they could have involved derogatory remarks. Roberts said that the Utes changed lodgings just one night before to their Spokane games. “We moved hotels because it’s messed up for our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA tournament environment,” the spokesperson said. We are grateful that the NCAA and Gonzaga, the host university, fought to locate us a new hotel. That’s the actual event. It was terrible, sad, and a diversion.
