PORTLAND – Last weekend’s racist incidents at Heart of Alene via the University of Utah women’s basketball team may be how the NCAA structures the women’s tournament in the future, adding games already scheduled for next year in Spokane.
Next year, based on the tournament’s existing format, the arena is expected to host Sweet and Elite Eight matches for 8 women’s teams.
But because of widespread complaints about the existing format, exacerbated by an incident at Coeur d’Alene, a very sensible NCAA official said this week that the organization could conduct a review this year instead of 2025.
On Thursday, coaches from across the country criticized the two-site regional format, calling it unfair to groups that have to travel greater distances than in the old four-region system.
“I’d love to have them in the Midwest regional spot, where it’s just for everyone,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said in Portland, where his team will face Gonzaga in a Sweet 16 game Friday night. “It’s a little less difficult for everyone to get there than it is here. “
The existing formula of assigning first- and second-round matches to the 16 top-ranked groups is also under scrutiny.
This year, the Gonzaga women won one of the most coveted spots, where they were joined by groups from Utah, the state of South Dakota and UC Irvine.
However, a shortage of hotel rooms in Spokane forced the three visitors to stay in northern Idaho.
From the first night of their stay, Utah’s players were subjected to racial abuse near their hotel in Coeur d’Alene. A pickup truck emblazoned with a Confederate flag drove past them and the driver began using offensive language, adding the N-word, according to a police report.
The team shook it off and ended up moving into a hotel in Spokane the next day.
Utah won its first game of the tournament but lost to Gonzaga on Monday at McCarthey Athletic Center. The Zags complex for the regional in Portland, where GU coach Lisa Fortier commented on the incident on Thursday.
“It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to those players and the staff,” Fortier said Thursday.
“I wish him something that never happens again,” Fortier said. “I hope that’s never the case. “
However, the shortage of hotel rooms did not affect Spokane. Eastern Washington University’s women, who qualified for the NCAA for the first time since 1987, were assigned to play in the state of Oregon.
A lack of adequate hotel rooms in Corvallis, Oregon, forced the Eagles to stay an hour’s drive away in Salem.
Fortier, whose team hosted for the first time since 2014, hoped the existing format would remain viable.
“We’ll be informed,” Fortier said. The next time we host them, I hope they’ll be in downtown Davenport and have a wonderful experience. “
The growing popularity of women’s soccer may be what pushes the NCAA to revamp its current format and schedule first- and second-round games years in advance, as it has for years in the men’s tournament.
This year, a record 292,456 spectators attended the first two rounds, surpassing the previous mark set last season with more than 60,000.
On Wednesday, Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president of women’s basketball, said the variety committee plans to overhaul the format of the tournament.
“This review would include the first four rounds, the first and second rounds, as well as an evaluation of the regional format at two sites,” Holzman said. “We need to take a look at the opening rounds of the championship, and with the expansion I’ve noticed it over the last few years, I think we’re pushing that overhaul to start in 2024. “