Air Raiders have 'great experience' in TBT despite falling short of goal

Nobody can say The Basketball Tournament is rigged.

If it were, it would've been the Air Raiders taking on Austin's Own, the University of Texas alumni team, in Friday night's semifinal of the Lubbock Regional.

Or, at the very least, the team comprised entirely of former Texas Tech basketball players would have advanced to the finals, taking on the North Texas alumni team to move a step closer to $1 million. Tech head coach Grant McCasland's old school — which featured several of his former players — taking on his new school?

Now that would've been made-for-streaming drama.

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Instead of either of those, New Mexico's alumni team brought the Red Raiders family reunion to an early close. Scott Bamforth shot his way to 24 points, the Air Raiders faced a 30-point deficit in the first half and The Enchantment walked away 84-67 victors.

"Obviously tonight is a little bit of a stinger," Air Raiders coach Jason Staudt said, "but I think all in all, it's a great experience for Texas Tech, these players. A lot of successful players in that locker room and it was fun putting it together. And it's gonna springboard, I think, the basketball program here going forward."

The Air Raiders time together was short. Most of the team arrived in town last Saturday. Davide Moretti wasn't able to get to Lubbock until Tuesday, the day before the opener.

In that time, though, the former Tech players and coaches spent time around the current iteration of the program, see all the changes since their time in the Hub City. Scrimmages against this year's squad gave way to the current Red Raiders showing their support for the past players in their victory over Purple Hearts, and again in Friday's defeat.

"A lot of the guys that are in that locker room," Staudt said, "they're the reason the Womble (Basketball Center) was built. The winning, the success they've had in the last few years has built the best practice facility in college basketball right across the street. So success breeds success. I think it's something that we're gonna continue to build on."

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At the start of the fourth quarter, trailing 68-58 and looking to make a comeback, Matt Mooney, Tariq Owens, Kyler Edwards, Parker Hicks and Moretti took the floor. Five members of the 2019 national runner-up team together again, something that seemed like a fever dream. The chemistry of that team, which Moretti and Hicks both said the Air Raiders were hoping to achieve, could not be replicated.

Fun as the week was, the second, revamped edition of the Air Raiders, playing in front of their home fans, was only able to match what the first team did in 2022: a second-round exit.

That doesn't take away from the overall experience. Sour as the taste of defeat is, the journey to the end was a memorable one.

"Obviously the goal is to win the tournament," general manager Andrew Sorrells said. "Didn't happen. But like Jason said, getting all these guys back from all the different eras, it's still a positive.

"The team dinners, the community events and the fact that the city embraced TBT coming to our city, I think that says a lot. ... It's a family reunion. And I thought it was a good experience. The goal was to win the tournament. We didn't do it. There were still a lot of positives."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Air Raiders have 'great experience' in TBT despite loss