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UConn's Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd 'wouldn't change' injury-filled careers: 'It shaped us'
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- UConn's Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd 'wouldn't change' injury-filled careers: 'It shaped us'
Editor's note: Follow UConn vs. South Carolina live updates from the women's NCAA championship game.
Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd have waited a long time for this moment.
UConn's one-two punch of Bueckers and Fudd came close to winning it all in 2022, but the Huskies fell short to South Carolina in the championship game. Despite the 64-49 blowout loss, the future looked bright for UConn and its dynamic duo. But as fate would have it, that loss would end up being the last March Madness game Bueckers and Fudd would play together for the next 1,084 days due to a string of devastating injuries.
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Now, Bueckers, 23, and Fudd, 22, have led the No. 2 Huskies back to the 2025 women's NCAA Tournament national championship game , where they will face the defending champion Gamecocks for the chance to win the program's record 12th title on Sunday in Tampa, Florida. It's a full-circle moment for the veterans.
"To be here at this stage is really rewarding," Bueckers said Saturday, after dropping 16 points in UConn's 85-51 Final Four win over No. 1 UCLA on Friday. "To both be doing what we love after all we've both been through, I'm sure if you asked her, she wouldn't change it. I wouldn't change it just because of how it shaped us and how it's shaped our mentality, how it shaped our faith and belief in everything that happens for a reason."
UConn guards Paige Bueckers (5) and Azzi Fudd (35) react after a basket against Seton Hall at Gampel Pavilion.
Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd: From teammates to family
Buckers and Fudd first met in 2017 while trying out for the USA Basketball Women's U16 National Team. The budding hoopers both made the team, alongside the likes of Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston , and led the U.S. to gold in the 2017 FIBA U16 Women's Americas Championship in Argentina. Fudd, who was only 14 at the time, dropped a team-high 18 points in the gold medal game . A friendship bloomed between the two, and after Bueckers' breakout freshman campaign at UConn in 2021, the Naismith College Player of the Year went into full recruiting mode to convince Fudd to team up with her in Storrs, Connecticut.
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"(Bueckers) actually made this one video ... of her high school highlights of her passing to people and she showed it to my family," Fudd recalled in 2021. "She sat down, airdropped it to the TV and said, 'This is what I'll be doing to Azzi. This is all the passes I'll get her if she comes to UConn next year, she'll get all these open shots.' I'm just shaking my head, my parents are laughing. But it was a Paige moment."
Bueckers got her wish and Fudd committed to UConn in 2021. The Huskies went 30-6 during Fudd's freshman season and advanced all the way to the national championship game, where they suffered a wire-to-wire loss to Dawn Staley's Gamecocks. Then, back-to-back devastating injuries upended everything. Bueckers missed the entire 2022-23 season after tearing her left ACL during a pickup game ahead of her junior year. Fudd missed all but two games in the 2023-24 season after tearing her right ACL at practice.
INJURY HISTORY: UConn guard Azzi Fudd suffered several setbacks on road to Final Four
Bueckers applauded Fudd's tenacity and resilience — "Azzi has done a remarkable job of overcoming trials in her life. And however that looks like, injury, illness, whatever it is, we know nothing beats Azzi" — and said their shared experiences brought them closer on and off the court.
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"Just having those bonded and shared experiences with each other -- trauma, good stuff, bad stuff, celebrations, sad days -- it just bonds you immensely," Bueckers added. "It just makes you so connected."
No Brussels sprouts before bedtime
Bueckers and Fudd will both suit up for the second national championship game of their career. When asked what experience she can pull from the 2022 title game, Fudd had a surprising answer: "I want to leave that game in the past and do nothing the same."
Fudd was limited to three points in 16 minutes in UConn's 64-49 loss to South Carolina after coming down with "food poisoning" the night prior to the big game. "I was up all night throwing up and it was awful... The doctor tried to put an IV in me. They used every needle they had because they couldn't find a vein. I was so dehydrated. And I hate needles, so that was traumatic on its own. I was exhausted during the game. Already nervous, worried about how I was going to play. I was so tired. I felt like I was pulling a truck," Fudd recalled on Saturday.
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The culprit? "I'm not going to have Brussels sprouts (Saturday), because I had a Brussels sprout come out my nose (in 2022)," Fudd said with a laugh, adding, "too much information."
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma remembered the loss from three years ago, which marks his only loss in 12 total championship appearances: "Azzi played like two minutes, three minutes, and was vomiting all morning. Paige is the only player here that actually played in that game. I remember going out to the game, talking to our coaches before we went into the locker room, I said, one of two things is going to happen tonight. We're either going to win a close game maybe in double overtime... or we're going to get blown out. This is not going to be one of those, you know, we lost by 10. And I was right."
The Huskies are hoping for a better outcome on Sunday. It will mark the last time Bueckers and Fudd will play together in a UConn jersey, win or lose. Fudd is returning to UConn for a fifth and final season, while Bueckers declared for the 2025 WNBA Draft, where she's widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick.
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"We prayed, we prepared, and we hoped to be playing on the last day of the season. We got that opportunity. We don't want to take it for granted," Bueckers said Friday. Fudd added, "We're capable of so much more, the sky's the limit for us and making sure we tap into that every single night and we never get complacent."
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: UConn's Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd back in March Madness championship
