The Kentucky Wildcats and three other teams are headed to Indiana with hopes of securing the 2015 NCAA National Championship. But the questions being asked of the coaches by reporters went deeper than game strategy.
News outlets and fans wanted to know how they felt about Indiana’s “religious freedom” law and concerns they may or may not have about traveling there for the tournament. UK’s own John Calipari, Tom Izzo of Michigan State University, Bo Ryan of the University of Wisconsin and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University said they were in unanimous support of the policies expressed by their institutions and the NCAA and released this joint statement...
“We are aware of the recent actions in Indiana and have made a point to talk about this sensitive and important issue among ourselves and with our teams. Each of us strongly supports the positions of the NCAA and our respective institutions on this matter — that discrimination of any kind should not be tolerated. As a part of America’s higher education system, college basketball plays an important role in diversity, equality, fairness and inclusion, and will continue to do so in the future.”
After the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed, former NBA star and analyst Charles Barkley said the NCAA “should not support discrimination in any form” said the state was unfit to host the rest of the tournament and called on the organization to pull the final games out of Indianapolis. UConn’s President announced that none of the sports staff at the University would attend because of the bill. All four teams however, are either en route or have already arrived in Indiana.