UConn women’s basketball star Azzi Fudd announced Tuesday that she will return to use her redshirt season of eligibility with the Huskies in 2025-26, positioning the team to bring back three of its five starters next season.
Fudd signed with UConn as the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2021, but the 5-11 guard has appeared in just 72 games with injuries limiting her for extended periods in each of the last four years. She sat out of 11 games in 2021-22 to resolve a lingering foot injury from her senior high school season, then missed 22 the following year with a right knee injury. Fudd appeared in two games in 2023-24 before suffering a season-ending ACL and meniscus tear in the same knee, and she didn’t return to the court until UConn’s Nov. 20 win over Fairleigh Dickinson.
Since returning, Fudd is having the best — and healthiest — season of her career. She is the third-highest scorer on the team, averaging 13.4 points per game, and she leads the Huskies in three-point percentage hitting a career-high 45.3% plus 48.6% from the field and 92.6% at the free throw line. The redshirt junior has appeared in 30 games and started 26 averaging 25.3 minutes per game.
The signature performance of Fudd’s comeback season was in UConn’s 87-58 upset at No. 2 South Carolina on Feb. 16. The star guard led the Huskies with 28 points shooting 6-for-10 from beyond the arc, also logging a season-high five rebounds plus two assists. She was named a first-team All-Big East selection for the first time in her career and made the all-conference tournament team. Fudd also shined in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with 27 points on six 3-pointers to lead UConn in a 103-34 rout.
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Fudd was widely considered a late first-round pick in 2025, though many mock drafts were not yet including her in the player pool amid uncertainty about her plans. She was projected as high as the No. 8 pick to the Connecticut Sun by the Bleacher Report’s Rachel Galligan, while the New York Post’s Madeleine Kenney and CBS Sports’s Jack Maloney both had her landing with the Minnesota Lynx at No. 11.
Fudd will return in 2025-26 alongside freshman Sarah Strong and redshirt freshman Jana El Alfy from this year’s starting lineup, and sophomores KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade also have experience taking on bigger roles after starting 33 games each in 2023-24. Fudd’s classmate Caroline Ducharme will also be back to use her redshirt season in 2024-25 after lingering head and neck injuries limited her to 34 games over the last three seasons combined.
UConn will lose three players to graduation after this season, headlined by superstar Paige Bueckers, who is all but guaranteed to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft. Coach Geno Auriemma said during the Big East Tournament that he also expects graduate transfer Kaitlyn Chen will be selected in the later rounds of the draft, and sixth-year senior Aubrey Griffin is out of eligibility.
