Everything we know about the racist incidents against Utah's basketball team
The NCAA tournament is supposed to give us some of the most spectacular moments in sports. It’s supposed to be one of the best moments of the participating athlete’s lives.
It seemed to be anything but that for Utah’s women’s basketball team on Monday and it has nothing to do with the result on the court against Gonzaga.
Utah head coach Lynne Roberts said her team experienced so much hate and harassment after arriving in Idaho for the team’s tournament game that the school had to switch hotels. She spoke about it in detail in a press conference after the team’s loss to Gonzaga.
“We had several incidences of racial hate crimes toward our program. Incredibly upsetting for all of us,” Roberts said. “You think it’s shocking in our world - in athletics and university - settings. There’s so much diversity on a college campus and you’re not exposed to that very often. So when you are, you have people say, ‘Man, I can’t believe that happened.’ But racism is real and it happens. And it’s awful.”
“For our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA tournament environment, it’s messed up,” she continued.
This happened because of a logistical issue that prevented Utah from staying in Spokane, Washington ahead of their games over the weekend. Instead, the team was moved a short drive away to C’oeur d’Alene, Idaho where players and staff members were harassed and experienced hate crimes.
Here’s everything we know about the incidents and what the team experienced in Idaho.