Racial hate crime forces Utah to move hotels at Women’s NCAA Tournament

An unfortunate and maddening situation unfolded during the Women’s NCAA Tournament for the Utah Utes that was completely out of their control.

According to the team and officials via Josh Furlong of KSL.com, Utah was subjected to racial hate crimes, forcing them to move hotels during their time in Idaho for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Utah was sent to Spokane for their side of the bracket, but their hotel was actually in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which Furlong pointed out, leading to an event that shook the team’s morale considerably.

“Utah was sent to Spokane for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament, but was stationed in a hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho — about 35 minutes away from the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane,” Furlong wrote. “On Thursday night, the basketball team — along with members of the band and cheerleading team — gathered together at a restaurant for a dinner to celebrate the season.

“While walking to the restaurant, a white truck got near the team, revved its engines to make its presence known, and then yelled the N-word toward the team before speeding off.”

Utah deputy athletics director Charmelle Green, who Furlong pointed out is Black, provided a statement on the shock of the situation.

“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that? … Everybody was in shock — our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Green told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that. … I got emotional and started to cry.”

That feeling of helplessness marinated throughout the team, as Utah head coach Lynne Roberts told KSL.com about how upsetting the entire ordeal was, with the team even coordinating a way to walk each other back to the hotel in an effort to stay safe and avoid having to go in small groups, per Furlong.

“Incredibly upsetting for all of us,” Roberts said. “You think in our world, in athletics and the university settings, it’s shocking. There’s so much diversity on a college campus and so you’re just not exposed to that very often. And so when you are, it’s like, you have people say, ‘Man, I can’t believe that happened.’ But racism is real and it happens, and it’s awful.

“So for our players, whether they are white, black, green, whatever, no one knew how to handle it and it was really upsetting. And for our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, that’s messed up.”

Afterwards, the team relayed their concerns to the NCAA, who helped Utah move to a hotel in Spokane, but the entire situation certainly had an effect on the Utes as a whole. Continuing, Green actually panned the NCAA’s original decision to send them to Idaho instead of Spokane in the first place, “the fact that we were sent to a place that wasn’t even the state that the university who’s hosting resides was incredibly problematic.”

The entire situation was on the minds of the players and coaches throughout their time in the NCAA Tournament, and it put a dent in their experience over the last couple of days.

“It was a distraction, and upsetting and unfortunate,” Roberts added. “This should be a positive for everybody involved. It should be a joyous time for our program. And to have kind of a black eye on that experiences is unfortunate. … It was really unfortunate and disappointing, and upsetting, and all the things. When this experience shouldn’t be any of those things.

“The shock of like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that happened.’ Yeah, I think it happens a lot, and it doesn’t get talked about enough.”

According to Furlong, Gonzaga made a statement after the incident, saying the university was made aware of the incidents and worked with the NCAA to “support the security and safety of everyone involved.”

“We are frustrated and deeply saddened to know that what should always be an amazing visitor and championship experience was in any way compromised by this situation, for it in no way reflects the values, standards, and beliefs to which we at Gonzaga University hold ourselves accountable,” the university said, via a prepared statement that was provided to KSL.com.

Alas, Utah reportedly filed a police report on the racial hate crimes, but there have been no updates since the report was filed, per Furlong. Utah won their first game of the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament, but fell to Gonzaga on Monday by a score of 77-66.