Utah Women’s Basketball Coach Reveals ‘Incredibly Upsetting’ Racist Comments Forced Team to Switch Hotels Before Tournament Game

Utah women’s basketball coach Lynne Roberts revealed her players were the victims of hate crimes while in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, for the NCAA Tournament.

After the team’s loss to Gonzaga on Monday, Roberts used her media availability to detail what the players went through in the days prior.

“We had several instances of some kind of racial hate crimes towards our program,” she said. “Incredibly upsetting for all of us. You think, in our world — in athletics and university settings — it’s shocking. There’s so much diversity on a college campus, so you’re just 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 — whether they are white, black, green, whatever — no one knew how to handle it… And for our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, it’s messed up.”

Roberts added that the NCAA and Gonzaga both got involved to help the Utes find a new hotel.

A number of local officials, including representatives from the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and Mayor Jim Hammond, were scheduled to address the incident Tuesday morning.

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