Women’s Basketball: No. 1 recruit Azzi Fudd commits to UConn

For the fourth time in five years, the UConn women’s basketball team has brought in the No. 1 recruit in their respective class. In 2017 it was top prospect Megan Walker, followed by Christyn Williams in 2018 and most recently Paige Bueckers in 2020. And yesterday, the nation’s top recruit in the class of 2021, Azzi Fudd, added herself to that list, committing to UConn via ESPN’s Instagram Live on her 18th birthday. 

“This recruiting process has been crazy,” Fudd said during the Live. “It’s been a blessing to decide what college I want to go to. It was a hard decision, but when it came down to it, I wanted to be somewhere that I would be proud of and know I made the best decision for me.” 

Fudd is widely considered to be a generational talent that can change the landscape of both college and professional basketball. Standing at 5-foot-11, the Virginia-native has been one of the most closely followed youth athletes for years now, with her first offer coming from the University of Maryland when she was just 12 years old. She has even garnered the praise of NBA great Stephen Curry in an interview he did with ESPN. 

“I think she has more of a textbook jumper than anyone I’ve seen,” he told ESPN. “Maybe Klay Thompson and Azzi Fudd … You go Ray Allen, Klay Thompson and Azzi Fudd. Textbook. You would teach somebody how to shoot with their form.” 

Now 18 years old, Fudd has the resume of a champion without even stepping foot on the court at the college level. At 14 she became the youngest member of the USA U-16 National Team, helping them win her first gold medal at the FIBA Americas U-16 Championship. The next year she partnered up with future teammate and 2020 No. 1 recruit Paige Bueckers to earn her second gold medal at the 2018 U-17 FIBA World Cup.  

In the 2018-19 season, her sophomore year of high school, Fudd averaged 26 points and became the first ever sophomore to win the National Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year, the same award Bueckers won a year later. In April of 2019, Fudd tore both her ACL and MCL, forcing her to miss most of her junior year, but she has recovered and is eager to finish her senior year and get to Storrs. 

“I’m looking forward to winning and being a part of the UConn family,” she said. 

Joining Fudd in this recruiting class is No. 5 recruit Caroline Ducharme, No. 15 recruit Amari DeBerry and No. 30 recruit Saylor Poffenbarger in what is one of UConn’s most complete groups of players in recent memory. 

With no seniors on the current roster, Fudd, Ducharme, DeBerry and Poffenbarger will join an already stacked UConn team next season that has the No. 1 recruit excited for what is to come. 

“I have a feeling we have multiple national championships in our future,” Fudd said.