Utah Women's Basketball Forced To Move Hotels After Alleged Racial Hate Crimes During NCAA Tournament

Lynne Roberts, head coach of the Utah women's basketball team, says the Utes experienced a series of "racial hate crimes" shortly after the team arrived at the hotel it was staying at for the NCAA Tournament. While Roberts did not go into detail about the allegations, Utah's deputy athletics directors, Charmelle Green, did.

Utah, a five seed, was sent to Spokane, Wash. for the first two rounds of the tournament but was staying in a hotel in Couer d'Alene, Idaho about 35 miles from the arena. On Thursday night, two days before the team's eventual first-round win over South Dakota State, the team along with members of the band and cheerleaders elected to walk to dinner from the hotel, which is when the alleged racial hate crimes took place.

Green, who is black, spoke with KSL and explained that a person driving a white truck got near the team, revved its engine, and then yelled the n-word towards the team before driving off.

"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 the outlet. "We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can't believe that."

(Photo by Myk Crawford/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

A similar incident took place after the team finished its dinner, according to Green.

Utah Women's Basketball Team Faced a Second Incident

As the team was leaving the restaurant, Green explained that they were met by two trucks that, again, revved their engines and yelled the n-word at the team. She said she got emotional "and started to cry" after the trucks drove off.

"I will never forget the sound that I heard, the intimidation of the noise that came from that engine, and the word (n-word)," Green said. "I go to bed, and I hear it every night since I've been here. ... I couldn't imagine us having to stay there and relive those moments."

The NCAA and Gonzaga, the host school, worked with Utah to move the team to a hotel in Spokane. The two other schools in the Spokane tournament pod, UC Irvine and South Dakota State, also stayed in hotels in Idaho.

Utah fell to Gonzaga in its second round matchup on Monday night, and Roberts admitted that the alleged incidents were a "distraction" for her team.

"Racism is real and it happens and it's awful," Roberts said. "So for our players, whether they are white, black, green, whatever, no one knew how to handle it and it was really upsetting. For our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA tournament environment, it's messed up."

"It was a distraction and upsetting and unfortunate," Roberts said. "This should be a positive for everybody involved. This should be a joyous time for our program and to have kind of a black eye on the experience is unfortunate."

The university filed a police report regarding the racial hate crimes, but have not been given any updates since filing. Utah's police escort from Idaho to the arena in Spoke was from Washington and had no jurisdiction over what allegedly took place.

Gonzaga issued a statement after Roberts' postgame press conference explaining the alleged incident "in no way reflects the values, standards and beliefs to which we at Gonzaga University hold ourselves accountable."