Your daily adult tube feed all in one place!
Idaho police have launched an investigation into the allegations that the University of Utah's women's basketball team were called racial slurs.
Utah coach Lynne Roberts said Monday that her team experienced a series of 'racial hate crimes' after arriving at March Madness, forcing them to change hotels during the event for safety concerns.
Police are now looking into surveillance footage showing the team leaving a restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where they said they were racially harassed. The incident happened off camera, according to Good Morning America.
As the players were walking between the restaurant and their hotel 'two lifted pickups were revving their engines and speeding by,' according to the Coeur d'Alene Police Department report, obtained by DailyMail.com.
The trucks reportedly turned around and their occupants 'yelled a racial slur' towards the group with some of the members African American.
Utah coach Lynne Roberts says her team experienced 'racial hate crimes' after arriving in Spokane for March Madness
Roberts' team were beaten 77-66 by Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA tournament
The report states that players wanted to press charges if the situation occurred again with the incident having caused 'well-founded fear'.
The threatening behavior reportedly continued after dinner as the team was followed to their hotel, according to Good Morning America.
Jim Hammond, the mayor of Coeur d'Alene, issued an apology to the team, saying: 'All of us stand with you. We embrace you.'
Roberts revealed what happened after Utah lost to Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Monday night. The 48-year-old didn’t go into detail but said there were several incidents on Thursday night that were so disturbing it led to concerns about their safety.
Utah was staying about 30 miles away from Spokane, where Monday's game took place, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and was relocated to a different hotel on 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 after her team's 77-66 loss to Gonzaga.
'You think in our world, in athletics and 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.
'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.
'For our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, it’s messed up.'
Utah, South Dakota State and UC Irvine were all 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 regional youth volleyball tournament in the area during the weekend.
That left limited hotel space and Gonzaga received a waiver from the NCAA to allow teams to be housed in Coeur d’Alene.
The 48-year-old coach revealed Utah were forced to move hotels before the game after being targeted with racial hate
Roberts said the NCAA and Gonzaga worked to move the team after the first night. 'It was a distraction and upsetting and unfortunate,' she added.
'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.
Gonzaga issued a statement after Roberts finished speaking saying that the first priority is the safety and welfare of everyone participating in the event.
'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,' the statement said.