Chemistry of Texas Tech's 2019 Final Four run the measuring stick for Air Raiders in TBT
In his three years in Lubbock, Davide Moretti accumulated many memories, many of them firsts for the Texas Tech basketball program.
First Big 12 championship. First Final Four. First appearance in the national championship game. The Air Raiders, the all-Texas Tech alumni team assembled for The Basketball Tournament, gives Moretti another chance to relive his college glory days back in United Supermarkets Arena.
Moretti jumped at the chance to be part of it all. He contacted his old roommate and teammate Andrew Sorrells, letting him know if TBT was coming to Lubbock, so was he.
"I want to be there so bad," Moretti said. "I can't wait to play again in front of the fans."
Moretti is one of six members of Texas Tech's 2019 Final Four team that will be part of the Air Raiders. Sorrells operates as the team general manager while Moretti will be reunited with fellow starters Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens. Kyler Edwards, a crucial piece off the bench, and Parker Hicks are also locked in for TBT.
All six of those 2018-19 team members followed different paths before and since that magical run. Edwards and Hicks wound up transferring to other schools — Edwards to Houston for his final year, Hicks to Division II Lubbock Christian for a stellar run with the Chaps. Mooney and Owens began their respective college careers at other schools before coming Red Raiders.
Moretti played his entire collegiate career at Texas Tech. However, his time in Lubbock was cut short thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It wasn't easy at all," Moretti said. "It took me like nearly two months to decide what kind of path to give my career."
With uncertainty around the 2020-21 college season, and interest from professional clubs in his native Italy, Moretti decided to forgo his senior season and remain home with his family. Chris Beard, Moretti's coach at Tech, tried convincing him to come back, but Moretti had made his decision.
Moretti has made a couple trips back to Lubbock since then, one for a basketball camp he helped host and another to graduate from Texas Tech University. This trip is both business and pleasure, an opportunity to form a unique experience with his fellow Red Raider alums.
Reliving the past
Many members of the 2019 Final Four team went their separate ways after falling to Virginia in overtime in the national championship. Mooney and Owens graduated. Moretti and Edwards came back for another season. And Hicks decided to make a change.
A reserve on the national finalist squad, Hicks went across town to LCU to finish his career. He has since become a high school coach, leading the Levelland boys team last year and now helping Lubbock-Cooper Liberty start up its program in the fall.
Having been around Lubbock this whole time, Hicks has never stopped closely watching the Red Raiders or supporting the program. He said he'll be part of the welcoming committee when the rest of the Air Raiders get to town, hosting friends and teammates at his home, showing them all the changes the city has undergone the last four years.
One thing that remains with Hicks from his time as a Red Raider was how close the team was during that 2019 run.
"Whatever it was, everybody was connected," Hicks said. "Everybody knew what was going on. Everybody knew their role. Everybody had each other's back."
That sort of cohesiveness is something those six Final Four members will try to replicate with the Air Raiders. They'll just have a much shorter amount of time to achieve it.
Most of the team was scheduled to get together for the team's first practice on Saturday. Due to family matters, Moretti was scheduled to get into town Monday, giving the Air Raiders limited time to practice as a whole before their opening-round game 8 p.m. Wednesday against Purple Hearts.
That doesn't concern Moretti too much. Everybody on the team has played high-level basketball, many of them with lengthy careers overseas. It shouldn't take long for the team to find that 2019-level cohesion they're looking for.
It doesn't hurt that they'll have the Red Raider faithful backing them throughout the Lubbock Regional.
"It's always fun to come back and see the play that I lived like a home," Moretti said. "I was there and I felt like it was my second home. It was so special to me because all those memories, after the Final Four, when we came back from Anaheim (after the Elite Eight), those memories are with me forever.
"Every time I come back to campus, I try to relive those memories and it's very, very special to me. To play in the USA, it will be even more special."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Chemistry of Texas Tech's 2019 Final Four run the measuring stick for Air Raiders in TBT
