Earlier this year, Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers made their relationship public after winning the national championship. Bueckers played her redshirt senior year at UConn and fulfilled her dream of winning the NCAA title.
She started all 38 games for UConn and averaged 19.9 points, 4.6 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.1 steals per game. She was clearly on a mission as she led Geno Auriemma’s pack of Huskies to their record 12th NCAA championship.
Bueckers became the first WNBA draft pick in 2025, and Fudd is now destined to lead UConn into the 2025-26 season. Fudd will play her redshirt season with the Huskies. Both had to overcome ACL injuries.
Fudd has one more year left before she takes her talents to the league. Auriemma has made it clear that he wants Fudd to step up into the leadership role, just like he expected from Bueckers. During UConn’s media day, Azzi Fudd revealed what she has learned from Bueckers’ final collegiate season and first season in the WNBA.
“Yeah, I mean I’ve been able to learn a lot from her while she was at UConn and then watching her this past summer. But just learning, I mean, I feel like the way that she just carries herself. She’s a great person, a great teammate. The way that she leads, the way that she cares for her teammates,” she said.
“So, she’s going to lead in like a personal way. So, she knows like, ‘Oh, I can talk to you this way.’ Um, I can talk to her this way and she’s always going to be there. It’s like I can push her this way and I can pick her up this way. So, I feel like what I learned from her was just the attention to detail that she had to things,” Fudd added.
Geno Auriemma’s UConn Without Paige Bueckers
Even after Paige Bueckers’ departure, the Huskies have a pretty strong unit. Geno Auriemma already has the next big thing in women’s college basketball in the form of Sarah Strong. He would be hopeful that she would only get better from here.
Azzi Fudd is in her last season, and she has shown in the national championship campaign how she can single-handedly change games for the Huskies. With the addition of Kayleigh Heckel, Olivia Vukosa, and Qadence Samuels, Auriemma has a talented group of players once again. Can Huskies win their 13th NCAA title?
Read more:
- “Not Dirty; That’s Just ’I Got Your Back, Teammate”: When Kim Mulkey Defended Angel Reese Despite Backlash Over Her Physical Play
- “Don’t Need To Ask Me if Angel Reese Is Good”: When Kim Mulkey Snapped Back After LSU’s SEC Title Loss to Dawn Staley’s South Carolina
- “We’re Not Best Friends, by Any Means”: When Caitlin Clark Set the Record Straight on Her Rivalry With Angel Reese
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