Nov. 24—It was the very first play for which Azzi Fudd was on the floor in more than a year for the UConn women’s basketball team.
Her friend and teammate Paige Bueckers found her with the inbounds pass to the right corner — to Bueckers’ left — for an open 3-point field goal, hoping to jump-start Fudd’s comeback.
Fudd missed. But her presence was felt, just the same.
“Azzi’s waited a long time, obviously,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Since her junior year in high school, she’s missed more basketball than she’s actually played. So I know how hard she’s worked. I know what it’s meant to her to come back.
“It’s going to be slow in the beginning but she changes our team. She makes us better. … I think Azzi makes us whole.”
Fudd, the former national high school player of the year from Arlington, Virginia, missed all but two games last season after suffering a torn ACL and meniscus in her right knee during practice on Nov. 14, 2023. A graduate student at UConn with two years of eligibility remaining, Fudd had played just 42 games in her career due to injury.
Then, in an 85-41 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson last Wednesday, a game in which Auriemma became the nation’s all-time Division I basketball wins leader with 1,217, Fudd was back on the floor for No. 43. She played 12 minutes off the bench and finished with four points, a rebound and a steal, which she converted for a layup.
The second-ranked Huskies (4-0) meet Oregon State (1-4) in the first round of the Baha Mar Women’s Championship at 7:30 p.m. Monday from the Bahamas. UConn will play either Boston College or No. 17 Mississippi in the tournament on Wednesday.
“We kind of had a specific play we run to get a 3 in the corner and so obviously Azzi checking in, I wanted to get her a look and hopefully have her make a 3 as soon as she checks in,” Bueckers said of Fudd’s first attempt of the season.
“I think she played very aggressive and it showed defensively, as well. But just for her to be back out there having fun, regardless of how many points she scores, how many minutes she plays, we just really wanted to see her back out there and have her enjoy that moment. We’re all grateful that she’s back.”
Named to the Big East All-Freshman Team and to the NCAA tournament All-Bridgeport Regional Team during the 2021-22 season, Fudd was averaging 24 points through the first six games of her sophomore season with a pair of 32-point performances before being sidelined with a knee injury.
Headed into this season, the 5-foot-11 guard, known as a sharpshooter, was named to the preseason All-Big East first team and to the watch lists for the prestigious Wooden Award, Naismith Award and Ann Meyers Drysdale Award in anticipation of her return.
There was no one anticipating it more than Fudd.
“I was just nervous but so excited,” Fudd said of her grand entrance. “I was so happy to be out there. I was talking to Paige about it earlier, just how I just wanted to play. I was nervous to miss, nervous to not play well.
“… I’m just glad this game is over because now I think, like, the first-game jitters are hopefully done with.”
Fudd didn’t know when she chose the date for her return, after talking to UConn doctors and trainers, that it would be Auriemma’s record-breaking victory and also the celebration of Auriemma and associate coach Chris Dailey’s 40 years in Storrs, Connecticut.
Fudd drew a huge cheer from the sold-out crowd when she moved from the bench to the scorer’s table and every time she touched the ball from then on.
“I was pretty excited to be a part of Azzi Fudd night,” Auriemma said later on, with a laugh.
Fudd, who came to UConn a year after Bueckers, giving the Huskies a pair of No. 1 recruits — they now how three No. 1s with freshman Sarah Strong — has only played 18 games so far in her career alongside Bueckers when the two were expecting to compete in tandem over their careers.
“I’ve almost forgotten what that could look like or should look like,” Auriemma said earlier this season. “Or to have an imagination like, ‘Wow, I’ve seen them at their best together and I’m anxious to see that again.’ It’s almost like an unknown at his point.
“… I think we would have the makings of what makes a really good competitor, a team that could compete for a championship. You have to have great inside play, you have to have a real good wing player and you have to have a really, really good guard. (With Fudd), it gives us those three things that we need.
“It’s not gonna show itself this week or next week or maybe the whole month of November. I don’t know. But when we get her fully acclimated, we’re a different team.”
