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Alexa Philippou
UConn Huskies star Azzi Fudd will return subsequent season for her ultimate yr of school basketball, she announced Tuesday.
Fudd is eligible to go away for the upcoming WNBA draft, the place she doubtless would have been a first-round choose, however informed ESPN that she believes spending yet another yr at UConn will permit her to “work on all the things I must work on” and take her recreation to a brand new degree.
A latest dialog Fudd had with coach Geno Auriemma, she stated, helped solidify for her that she had far more left to offer in a UConn jersey. Auriemma informed her he would help her no matter her determination however stated he thinks she hasn’t reached her full ceiling at UConn.
“He stated, ‘I might say 10 video games, possibly, you have performed to your full potential of who Azzi Fudd actually is and so that you would not do your self justice leaving,'” Fudd recollects him saying. “You would depart right here not doing what you may in a UConn uniform.’ I used to be like, ‘Yeah, he has some extent.'”
“Having somebody of Azzi’s means and the best way she will be able to simply management a recreation, she simply hasn’t had a possibility, at this level, to totally present who she is, what she will be able to do, what influence she will be able to have on our program and on school basketball,” Auriemma informed ESPN. “So hopefully being right here one other yr, having an injury-free yr, knock on wooden, can remind everyone that is the Azzi Fudd that was popping out of highschool, and might we get a full yr out of that? I am as excited as anyone, our followers, anyone to see what can occur.”
The 5-foot-11 graduate pupil arrived in Storrs as a heralded prospect, the No. 1 recruit within the class of 2021 whose jumper NBA legend Stephen Curry as soon as referred to as extra “textbook” than anybody’s he’d seen. However due to accidents, she has performed simply 72 video games over 4 seasons, together with 17 throughout the earlier two campaigns.
Fudd returned 4 video games into the season this yr from her November 2023 ACL tear, then missed three video games in December after tweaking her knee. However she has made a career-high 30 appearances to this point this season, with the Huskies advancing to the Candy 16 after a win Monday over South Dakota State.
Fudd has come into type within the 2025 calendar yr particularly, most prominently main the Huskies with 28 factors (together with six 3-pointers) to an upset victory at defending champion South Carolina in mid-February. Enjoying in her first NCAA event since 2023, she dropped an NCAA-tournament career-high 27 factors within the first spherical versus Arkansas State and added 17 of their second-round victory over South Dakota State.
Her 45.3% clip from past the arc is a top-10 mark within the nation and second amongst gamers nonetheless lively within the NCAA event. Within the postseason, her 16.4 factors per recreation are the second-best mark on the staff.
Fudd stated she believes having a real offseason to work on her recreation — as an alternative of getting to go proper into one other season if she went to the WNBA — can be helpful, one thing she wasn’t capable of totally make the most of this previous summer time.
She needs, too, to faucet again into the boldness she had getting into her sophomore yr, when she had a blistering begin of the season earlier than being sidelined with a knee harm. The Huskies will want much more of that model of Fudd with star Paige Bueckers not in Storrs.
“Paige goes to be gone, so I can not depend on her to talk and do all that [leadership] stuff, on and off the courtroom,” Fudd stated. “I should be in that place.”
At instances in her profession, Fudd admits, she has been too passive on the courtroom. However with time winding down to attain her particular person and staff targets, she is aware of she will be able to’t take that strategy shifting ahead. Even this yr, she has had conversations with Auriemma the place she has requested him to not go simple on her and to push her more durable.
“There is no extra, ”Oh, subsequent yr,” Fudd stated. “Subsequent yr is the yr, nicely this yr first, however subsequent yr, I wish to get all this stuff carried out, and I wish to ensure that him and all the opposite coaches, even my teammates, are on my again, ensuring that I am being held accountable for all the things.”
Fudd stated she hopes to be an All-American and win a nationwide championship subsequent season, however she and the staff have a lot they nonetheless wish to accomplish this yr. There’s loads of motivation over the following few weeks, the final journey for Bueckers and senior Aubrey Griffin, because the Huskies hope to take full benefit of their healthiest and deepest squad in years.
“I do not wish to take any second, any possession, as a right,” Fudd stated. “I do not wish to have that form of passive mindset, not as soon as this event. I am enjoying for my teammates. I am enjoying for me who could not play final yr, and [UConn’s current injured players].
“I do know what it feels wish to be on the skin, so I do not wish to take even a possession as a right or evenly in any respect however particularly now in the course of the event.”
