Coach says racist hate in hotel rocks Utah team during NCAA Tournament

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – Utah coach Lynne Roberts said her team experienced a series of “racially motivated hate crimes” after arriving at its first hotel on the NCAA tournament and was forced to alter accommodations during the event resulting from safety concerns.

Roberts revealed what happened after Utah’s loss to Gonzaga in the NCAA second round on Monday. Roberts didn’t go into details, but said that on Thursday evening after the team arrived in Spokane, Washington, there have been several incidents on the tournament site that disturbed the traveling group to the purpose that safety concerns were raised.

Utah was staying about 30 miles away in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, but was transferred to a different hotel on Friday.

“We have had several incidents of some type of racial hate crimes against our program and (it has been) extremely disheartening for all of us,” Roberts said. “In our world, in sports and in universities, this is shocking. There’s a lot of diversity on a college campus, so you don’t get to interact with it a lot.”

Utah State associate athletic director Charmelle Green told KSL.com that on Thursday night, the basketball team, together with band members and the cheerleading squad, were walking to a restaurant when a truck pulled up, began its engines and someone shouted the N-word. before accelerating.

“We were all in shock and looked at each other like, did we just hear that?[…]Everyone was in shock — our cheerleaders and the students who were in the area who heard it clearly just froze,” Green told KSL.com , which is black.

Two hours later, because the band began to go away the restaurant, two trucks pulled up with their engines running and someone shouted the N-word again, in keeping with KSL.com.

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Utah, South Dakota State and the University of California, Irvine stayed in hotels in Idaho, despite the fact that Gonzaga was the host school, resulting from a scarcity of hotel space in the Spokane area. Just a few years ago, town was announced to host the primary and second rounds of the NCAA men’s tournament, and the realm hosted a big regional youth volleyball tournament over the weekend.

That left limited hotel space, and Gonzaga received a waiver from the NCAA allowing teams to be housed in Coeur d’Alene.

“Racism is real, it happens and it is terrible. So for our players, whether they’re white, black, green or whatever, no one knew how to deal with it and it was really depressing,” Roberts said. “The fact that our players and staff don’t feel safe in the NCAA tournament environment is messed up.”

Roberts said the NCAA and Gonzaga were working to maneuver the team after the opening night.

“It was a distraction, depressing and unfortunate. This should be positive for everyone involved. This should be a joyous time for our program, and to turn a blind eye to this experience is unfortunate,” Roberts said.

After Roberts’ speech, Gonzaga released an announcement saying its top priority was the protection and well-being of everyone attending the event.

“We are frustrated and deeply saddened to know that a guest should always be amazing and that the championship experience has been compromised in any way by this situation as it in no way reflects the values, standards and beliefs that we at Gonzaga University stand for. We are responsible.” the statement said.

Far-right extremists remain present in the region. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, at the least nine hate groups were energetic in the Spokane region and northern Idaho in 2018, including Identity Evropa, Proud Boys, ACT for America and America’s Promise Ministries.