Texas Tech basketball: The best moments of Davide Moretti’s Red Raider career

Now that Davide Moretti‘s Red Raider career is over, let’s look back at the moments that made him a fan favorite.

Davide Moretti is no longer a member of the Texas Tech basketball program.  But he will forever be one of the most beloved Red Raiders of all-time.

Just like fans from the 1980s still revere Bubba Jennings and fans from the 1990s still talk about the exploits of Stan Bonewitz, all of us who lived and died with every game over the last three seasons will forever talk about what Moretti meant to the program.

There’s just something about feisty and somewhat undersized outside shooters that captures the hearts of basketball fans and that’s certainly what Moretti did.  It also helped that he had some legendary games during his career.

His career-high in points came this past season in the wild 89-81 shootout win over West Virginia in Lubbock when he had 25.  He nearly matched that in November when he poured in 23 points against Creighton in an OT loss in the Las Vegas Invitational.

Then there was his 20-point game in the 2018-19 regular-season finale against Iowa State to help Tech claim a share of its first Big 12 title.  Though his efforts from that afternoon in Ames are always going to be overshadowed by Jarrett Culver‘s 31 points, Moretti was huge in his own right.

Impressively, all five of his career 20-point games came against teams from a high-major conference.  That’s the sign of a player who takes his game to another level when the competition rises.

Another program first in which he played a huge role was December’s victory over No. 1 Louisville, the first time that the Texas Tech basketball program has ever beaten the top-ranked team in the country.  That night in Madison Square Garden, Moretti had 19 points despite shooting just 2-10 from 3-point range.  His steady hand at the free-throw line where he was 8-8 helped Tech hold off the Cards down the stretch.

It’s impossible not to think about the improvement Moro made from his freshman season.  Playing 12.3 minutes per game in 2017-18 as the last member of Chris Beard’s rotation, he averaged just 3.5 points per game.

During that year, he often looked timid and uncertain of himself.  It appeared as if the physicality of the Big 12 game might be too much for him to handle despite the fact that he had been playing against professionals in Italy and had represented his country in various international tournaments.

But when thrust into the starting five as a sophomore, his scoring increased to 11.5 points per game.  Along the way, he came up with some of the most heroic moments in Tech basketball history, as we will discuss momentarily.

His final season in Lubbock saw him take on even greater responsibility as the team’s unquestioned leader and the most experienced member of the roster when it came to experience in Beard’s system.  He posted a career-high 13 points per game to go along with 1.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

Never a lead dog in terms of what happened on the court, Moretti was the perfect No. 2 option, especially when playing with Jarrett Culver in 2018-19 as Moretti’s outside shot was able to open up the court for the 2019 Big 12 Player of the Year.   And along the way, Moretti became an all-time fan favorite.

He will certainly be missed this year, regardless of whether or not Beard is able to replace his productivity.  Moretti will always be synonymous with the first phase of what we all hope will be a long reign for Chris Beard in Lubbock.  He broke the mold of the stereotypical European player and proved to be a gritty, tough-nosed street dog that wasn’t afraid to mix it up.   And of course, there was that textbook 3-point shot, which he could fire at a moment’s notice.

He leaves as the only Texas Tech basketball player with a career free-throw percentage over 90% (90.6% to be exact).  Additionally, he’s tied for 9th in 3-point shooting percentage at 39.9%.  What’s more, his sophomore season, in which he hit 45.9% from deep, is good for 6th in Tech history.  Also last year, he became the first player in Big 12 history to shoot 50% from the field, 45% from behind the arc, and 90% from the line in conference play helping further his claim as arguably the best shooter to ever play for the Red Raiders.

So to say goodbye to Davide Moretti, let’s take a look at five of the moments that helped make him a Texas Tech basketball legend.  Rather than focusing on individual games, we will look at specific plays or moments that many Red Raider fans will always cherish.  And we will begin with a quintessential street dog play.