recent interview<\/a> with UConn alum and basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo, Fudd revealed the conversation that ultimately shaped her decision to stay in Storrs.<\/p>\n\u201cI had a really great talk with Coach [Auriemma] about it\u2026 He said, \u2018You\u2019re four years here, you\u2019ve played five games where you really played to your full potential\u2026 that\u2019s not enough. You\u2019d be doing yourself a disservice, whatever team in the W[NBA] a disservice\u2013they wouldn\u2019t know the player they\u2019re really getting. You owe it to yourself to have a full season of playing \u201cAzzi Fudd\u201d basketball and reach your full potential at UConn.\u2019 I agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n
After battling through a series of injuries and setbacks, Fudd is entering her final year at UConn, prepared to defend the national title. She is projected to be among the top three picks next year in several mock drafts. One wonders if her stock would have been as high if she had left school after last season.<\/p>\n
A Brief Look at Azzi Fudd\u2019s UConn Career and Injuries<\/p>\n
Arriving at UConn as the No. 1 prospect in 2021, Azzi Fudd had a tough time staying on the court. She missed multiple games as a freshman due to a foot injury but finished the season with impressive averages of 12.1 points and 2.7 rebounds over 25 games.<\/p>\n
Next year, she hurt her right knee during a game against Notre Dame. She was sidelined for five weeks despite a great start to her sophomore season, when she scored at least 24 points in four of her first six games. She injured the same knee upon her return and ended up playing only 15 games.<\/p>\n
Then came the ACL and medial meniscus tear<\/a> on the same right knee. She showed her true mettle last season, saving some of her best performances for March Madness. She scored her 1,000th career point in the National Championship Game against Dawn Staley\u2019s South Carolina squad and was awarded the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Azzi Fudd announced she would return to UConn for another season instead of entering the 2025 WNBA…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":347083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[104,728,10814,86770,62,170336,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-347082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-newsbreak","11":"tag-pfsn","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-this-comment-by-geno-auriemma-is-the-real-reason-azzi-fudd-did-not-declare-for-2025-draft","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115472362044505011","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}