Utah coach says team was shaken after experiencing racist hate during NCAA

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Members of the Utah women’s basketball team were subjected to racism near their hotel in Idaho last week when a pickup truck with a Confederate flag drove near them and the driver began using offensive language, including the N-word, authorities said Tuesday. The team was left shaken and wound up moving to a different hotel the next day.

Utah coach Lynne Roberts said her team experienced a series of hate crimes after arriving at its first NCAA Tournament hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She revealed what happened after Utah lost to Gonzaga in the second round of the tournament Monday night and authorities confirmed some of the details the following day.

Roberts said the incidents happened last Thursday night after the team arrived and they were disturbing to the traveling party to the point there were concerns about safety. Utah and other teams played their games in Spokane, but the Utes were staying about 30 miles away in Coeur d’Alene before they were relocated to a different hotel Friday.

“We had several instances of some kind of racial hate crimes toward our program and (it was) incredibly upsetting for all of us,” Roberts said. “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.”

Tony Stewart, an official with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said at a news conference the Utes were walking from the hotel to a restaurant when the truck drove up and the driver began using racist language. After the team left the restaurant, the same driver returned “reinforced by others,” Stewart said, and they revved their engines and again yelled at the players.

“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,” Utah deputy athletic director Charmelle Green, who is Black, told KSL.com.

Utah said it filed a police report the night of the incidents. Coeur d’Alene police chief Lee White said Tuesday about 100 people were around the area that night, but investigators need to interview those affected. He said there are two state charges that could be enforced — malicious harassment and disorderly conduct — if someone is arrested. White also said he was working with the FBI.

“Until we get all the facts and the investigation is complete, what charges might actually be brought against the perpetrators is yet to be determined,” White said.

Utah, South Dakota State and UC Irvine were staying at hotels in Idaho, even with Gonzaga as the host school, because of a lack of hotel space in the Spokane area. Several years ago, the city was announced as a host for the first and second rounds of the men’s NCAA Tournament and there was also a large youth volleyball tournament in the area during the weekend.

That left limited…