Utah WCBB HC: Team Experienced 'Racial Hate Crimes' at Hotel During NCAA Tournament

University of Utah head women's basketball coach Lynne Roberts said Monday night that members of her team were victims of "racial hate crimes" at a hotel in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, prior to their opening game in the NCAA women's basketball tournament.

According to the Associated Press, Roberts said: "We had several instances of some kind of racial hate crimes toward our program and [it was] incredibly upsetting for all of us. In our world, in athletics and in 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."

Utah, which was a No. 5 seed in the tournament, was scheduled to play its first two games of the tourney at Gonzaga's McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane, Washington, but the Utah, South Dakota State and UC Irvine teams stayed about 30 miles away at a hotel in Idaho due to a lack of hotel space in Spokane.

Roberts said several incidents occurred last Thursday upon arriving in Coeur d'Alene that made her players uncomfortable and worried for their safety, resulting in the team getting moved to a different hotel.

According to KSL.com's Josh Furlong, "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" as the team was walking into a restaurant for dinner.

Roberts, who has been the head coach at Utah since 2015, further explained what her team went through:

"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. 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. 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 of Gonzaga expressed regret for what the Utah women's basketball team went through, releasing the following statement:

"We are frustrated and deeply saddened to know 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."

Utah had its first-round NCAA tournament matchup against 12th-seeded South Dakota State on Saturday, beating the Jackrabbits by a 68-54 score.

That marked the third consecutive year that the Utes reached at least the second round of the tournament, but it fell 77-66 to fourth-seeded host Gonzaga in the Round of 32 on Monday night.