Indiana Hoosiers women's basketball coach Teri Moren said Saturday that an opportunity was missed to showcase her No. 6-ranked squad and other teams at the Las VegasInvitational tournament this weekend because of a subpar setup.
The site coordinating for the event apologized to players, coaches, fans and referees about the tournament conditions that have been discussed on social media, according to a report. There were no stands for spectators at the Mirage hotel where the tournament was held. The chairs were outside.
Ryan Polk apologized according to Moren.
"I think there are other people who need to apologize as well for wanting us to come and play in this event and making promises, if you will." This is not what we were told would look like, what the setup would look like.
It's not a fan friendly environment. We are trying to move our game forward. It felt like we had taken a couple steps backwards because this was so popular. We missed a chance to grow our game because you have so many good teams here. This was a big miss because I see all these other tournaments and footage of that.
The Hoosiers were told by the tournament director that the event would have a court similar to the one in Las Vegas. It didn't look like that.
There was a tournament in Florida this weekend. The setup in Las Vegas wouldn't be up to par.
Polk apologized. The court and lighting have not been a problem. We need full-on bleachers. We notified The Mirage that we wouldn't be returning. It's a one-time disaster. It wasn't the way we thought it would be. We badly missed the mark when it came to the spectators.
On Saturday night at the tournament, an issue arose when Richardson was injured while trying to recover a loose ball. It took nearly an hour for her to get medical attention. It took more than 40 minutes for paramedics to get to the court.
"She was alert, she was responsive to everything, so I think it's precautionary," Harris said after the Tigers' 74- 73 win over the Colorado State Rams.
Grace Berger did not play in Saturday's win over Memphis because of a knee injury.
The court had nothing to do with Berger's injury, according to Moren. She was worried about the time it took for Richardson to get medical care. The game started more than an hour late for the Hoosiers.
Moren doesn't read a lot of social-media. There is no issue with the floor. The injury to Grace wasn't caused by the floor.
Any good tournament has EMTs on site. That was not the case once again. Another missed opportunity for this tournament. The things that should have been better were not. I didn't like having to watch that moment for auburn.
The athletic director of Indiana wanted to make sure that the environment was safe for the team to play in. She said the Hoosiers felt safe despite the injury.
Moren has played in ballrooms before. The ballroom we played in the last two nights was vastly different from the one we were in in the Bahamas. I don't want people to think that ballroom dancing is dangerous. There were many things that needed to be improved.
This story was contributed to by a person.
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