Following Paige Bueckers’ departure for the WNBA at the end of the 2025 season, there’s no doubt that her girlfriend, Azzi Fudd, has become the face of the UConn Lady Huskies basketball program. It wasn’t for naught that Fudd was selected as the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player in the Huskies’ run to the national championship this past spring.
Asked this week by the CT Insider if she feels pressure from taking the mantle left by Bueckers, she said:
“I don’t think I see it as pressure on me. I see it more as a challenge,” Fudd says. “Maybe that’s because I like challenges, and to think of it as pressure, then it becomes a little bit more heavy…”
“I’m not gonna be like how Paige was a leader, how Nika (Mühl) was as a leader. I’m not gonna be super loud. I don’t think that’s in me to be like that. So, to find, like, who Azzi is as a leader, that’s gonna be my challenge,” she added.
Winning the national championship has completely changed Fudd’s life, both on and off the court. https://t.co/KSBfrtlko5
— CT Insider (@insider_ct) July 31, 2025
Azzi Fudd averaged 13.6 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game in the 2024-25 season with UConn, while also having a field goal percentage of 47.4%.
What’s Azzi Fudd’s nickname? Where did it originate?
Among the UConn Lady Huskies, Azzi Fudd is known as “The People’s Princess”. At first glance, it’s a weird nickname. It seems to have no basis on the way she plays or behaves in the court.
During an episode of the “Good Game With Sarah Spain” podcast in July, Fudd revealed that she was christened like that by her girlfriend and former UConn teammate Paige Bueckers:
“What’s the origin of that nickname?” Spain asked Fudd.
“I think Paige made a comment about how I’m the princess because coach (Geno Auriemma) doesn’t yell at me and somehow that morphed into people calling me ‘The People’s Princess,’ “ Fudd laughed. “Yeah, I’m not really sure. I know I’m not mad about it though.”
It seems to be all down to the fact that UConn’s women’s basketball coach, Geno Auriemma, is known for treating her players harshly, even if fairly while trying to get the best out of them. Not in Azzi Fudd’s case, who seems to be Auriemma’s favorite.
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