‘It’s just different there:' Azzi Fudd on why she chose UConn, how Paige Bueckers recruited her and chasing four straight NCAA titles

Azzi Fudd had seen her fair share of college campuses and basketball practices over the years, her recruiting process having started in sixth grade when she received an offer from Maryland. But the first time she was able to see a UConn women’s basketball practice up close and personal, she got chills.

“Right away, you could tell that it was just different there,” Fudd recently told The Courant. “The way they went about their business and handled their business, it was just different. They did it on different level. It shows why they’re always such a good program and how Coach Auriemma and the other coaches do such a great job. ... Mentally, their IQ is different, the knowledge that all the coaches bring.”

Fudd’s path back to Storrs took some time and wasn’t necessarily a given — she agonized over her college decision, which eventually came down to UConn versus UCLA. But having inked her future in the national flag blue-and-white last Wednesday, she couldn’t be more excited to spend the next four years under the tutelage of 11-time national champion Geno Auriemma.

“I’m just excited to learn," Fudd said. "[Auriemma] has so much knowledge and information about the game that I can’t wait to learn from him. I think that’s what I’m looking forward to most, is just being able to be there and be able to compete and get better and learn.”

Fudd, the consensus No. 1 recruit in the class of 2021 and one of the most heralded in recent memory, compiled accolade after accolade as she burst onto the national basketball scene. The 5-foot-11 guard out of Arlington, Va., became the first sophomore to win Gatorade national girls basketball player of the year in 2019 after averaging 26.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.9 blocks per game. She also won gold with Team USA at the 2018 FIBA U17 World Cup and 2017 FIBA 1/4 u2008Americas U16 Championship as the youngest player on each team.

After tearing her ACL and MCL in April 2019, Fudd made her return to the court this past January with her high school team, St. John’s College High.

Fudd doesn’t want to rest on her laurels. That’s where Auriemma and his staff come in.

“I know that they will be able to push me and get the most out of me,” Fudd said. “I have goals of playing in the WNBA, being on the Olympic team. So I just know that being at UConn with them as my coaches and then also competing with the best in practice everyday, it will get me to be the player I want to be.”

Among the players she’ll be competing against in practice: best friend Paige Bueckers, who relentlessly recruited her both publicly and privately to join the Huskies. Pushing each other on the practice court was part of Bueckers’ pitch to Fudd, she told media last week, as well as the fact that Bueckers says she knows Fudd’s game better than anyone else, so she’d be in trouble if they were on opposing teams.

Bueckers stayed with the Fudd family during part of quarantine, and when the two would scrimmage together, Bueckers would be sure to let Fudd know that “'you saw those passes I was getting to you? Well, you’d be getting those for three years if you come to UConn,'” Fudd recalls. Bueckers also made a highlight reel of her best passes from high school games so that she could show her best friend, “'see, that could be you in the corner instead of so-and-so'" if they played together collegiately.

As much as Bueckers wanted Fudd to join her in Storrs, she gave her the space to make her own decision, Fudd said. But the possibility of playing with some of her close friends — Bueckers as well as fellow 2021 signees Caroline Ducharme and Amari DeBerry — indeed factored into her decision, particularly after Fudd recently lost some people close to her.

"That’s not something that a lot of players get a chance to have,” Fudd said. “It also made me realize this past year, you can’t take things for granted, life is short. I was kind of like, ‘how can I say no to this amazing program, where I’m going to get the most out of it, I will be the player I want to be, and also while doing that and putting in all the work, I’ll be able to do it with my best friend?’”

Bueckers and Fudd don’t shy away from talking about what their time together in Storrs will look like, both on and off the court. Already, Bueckers is giving her a taste of the hard work and expectations that await her next summer.

“The other day [Bueckers is] like, ‘Practice was so bad. We were so tired, and we weren’t shooting well. There wasn’t enough energy and coach got mad at us,'” Fudd said, "and she said something about, I don’t know if it was running or what. ... That’s not me yet, but I know that I’ll be there soon, so all I can do now is just laugh until it’s me also in that same position.”

Much of the future she and Bueckers envision revolves around winning — a lot. And those expectations have been further bolstered given the strong players that’ll surround them, including Fudd’s fellow 2021 signees Ducharme (No. 5 espnW ranking), DeBerry (No. 15) and Saylor Poffenbarger (No. 30).

“I’m so excited because we have a good class, but also for the talent that’s already there and how good those girls are,” Fudd said. “As long as obviously we come in prepared and ready to work hard and contribute where we can to the team, I’m just really excited to play with those girls and learn from them as well.

"It’s hard to say because I’m not at the college level, but I feel like we should be able to go four in a row.”

Until then, Fudd is focusing on completing her senior year at St. John’s, though the school’s league has not finalized plans for a basketball season. She’s hoping there will be one, so she can play in her first full high school season since her injury and win at all levels before she’ll “start right back at the bottom at college.”

“It makes me really proud of getting to this point, one, but also even more excited for what the future holds and what college will be like," Fudd said of her journey. "Our team will be really good.”

Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com

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