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Azzi Fudd, the consensus top women’s basketball prospect in the 2021 class, ended years of speculation on Wednesday, announcing that she will attend UConn in the fall, joining one of the most dynastic programs in the world. history of sport.
Fudd, who was 12 when she received her first scholarship offer, has been compared to the WNBA superstar and possibly Maya Moore. At 15, she edged the nation’s top male prospects at Stephen Curry’s SC30 Select Camp. At 16, she became the first sophomore in history to win the Gatorade Award for National Women’s Basketball Player of the Year. She turned 18 on Wednesday and planned to mark the occasion by signing her national letter of intent on day one of the NCAA’s early signing period.
The 5-foot-11 guard / forward at St. John’s College High School in Washington, DC announced her decision after spending much of the past 18 months recovering from a devastating knee injury in April 2019 – an ACL and a ripped MCL suffered at the USA Basketball U18s. 3×3 tournament – and most of the past eight months have separated from competitive basketball due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I know UConn will be able to push me to be the best player I can be,” said Fudd, who averaged 19.2 PPG and 3.5 RPG after returning from injury in the last 19 games of his season. junior season.
Fudd, named after Hall of Fame player Jennifer Azzi, becomes the fourth No.1 prospect in the past five years to commit to UConn, and she could be the best yet. His jump shot is already considered a work of art by one of the game’s connoisseurs.
“She can go full speed, stop at a dime and have, like, a feathery outing,” said two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry. “I think she has more of a textbook sweater than anyone I’ve seen. Maybe Klay Thompson and Azzi Fudd. … You go Ray Allen, Klay Thompson and Azzi Fudd, manual. You would learn. to someone to shoot with their form. “
Azzi Fudd’s journey to a college decision hasn’t come easily – nor quickly. It was the six-year recruiting story that led Fudd – a player widely predicted by scouts, coaches and basketball insiders to change the landscape of college basketball and eventually the WNBA – to choose the program. legendary trainer Geno Auriemma.
Weeks after Fudd had finished sixth grade, her mother, Katie, received a phone call from her husband, Tim, who summoned her to the Maryland campus, 25 miles from the Fudds’ home in the north. from Virginia. Tim had driven Azzi to campus earlier today so she could attend Maryland’s Elite Camp, a summer camp for competitive players aged 12 to 18. Against the juniors and seniors – kids four, five and six years older than 12-year-old Azzi, she held on.
“I think you’re going to have to come here,” Tim said looking at his daughter. “Coach [Brenda] Frese wants to have a meeting. “
Katie, who played at NC State and Georgetown, met Tim and Azzi in Frese’s office. Azzi, five months before his 13th birthday, munched on a salad, oblivious to the huge moment that was to come. And it was then, at that June 2015 reunion, that Frese offered Azzi his first scholarship – to play at the University of Maryland six and a half years from that date, starting in the 2021-22 season. .
“Do you have something to say?” Katie asked her daughter.
Azzi looked up from his salad, shrugged and smiled brightly. “Thank you!”
After the meeting, Azzi returned to camp and continued to play.
Katie looked stunned at Tim. “Sensational.”
This meeting and the summer of 2015 launched the Fudds on a recruiting trip to every corner of the country. In September, they stopped at Notre Dame on their way to Minnesota, then toured UCLA while spending Christmas in California with Katie’s family. Azzi was in the stands on February 8, 2016, when UConn played in South Carolina at Colonial Life Arena, and that summer the family added Michigan and Michigan State to their road trip tradition.
A year later, the summer after Fudd’s eighth grade, the Fudds took a drive south to visit Louisville and Vanderbilt, and then on their way home, retreated to Knoxville to see the legendary University of Tennessee. Fudd’s first trip to Storrs wouldn’t take place until a few months later, in the fall of his freshman year.
Six years of spontaneous calls, letters and emails and road trips, each school with its advantages and each with its disadvantages. Each with a slightly different height – adding more swirls to the tornado-making in this teenager’s mind.
“I hate making decisions,” said Fudd, who was the last prospect among the top 35 unenged at the start of the NCAA early signing period. “Every time I sat down and thought about it, I would end up in tears. I wouldn’t like to talk to my parents because they aren’t great emotional people.”
Said Tim, who played college at American: “She’s gotten really calm over the last year.”
On August 27, Fudd sat at the head of her grandmother’s dining room table in Shoreview, Minnesota, at her home, clutching two pieces of paper. Tim sat on his right, Grandma Karen on his left. Karen, Katie’s mother-in-law, stepped in to facilitate a conversation between Azzi and Tim. Katie was supposed to join, but she had already returned home to Virginia because her mother had fallen ill.
It had been six years since Fudd had served in Coach Frese’s office. She had since become the youngest member of the U16 and U17 gold medalist national teams. She averaged 26.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists during her award-winning second national campaign.
She had considered offers from UConn, Louisville, Oregon, UCLA, Kentucky, Texas, Notre Dame and Maryland. But as she sat with her father and grandmother Karen, 76 days before signing day, she was on her last two: UConn and UCLA.
Grandmother Karen’s need had become clear weeks earlier, when a family conversation about Azzi’s decision in college, one of the hundreds the family had had over the years, turned into one. dispute.
“I did it for myself,” Tim says now. He wanted Azzi to understand that he couldn’t just get on a plane and go to the games if she was far away. Tell UCLA. When he went to America, his parents were there. “I could hear my mother calling my name in the middle of an arena of 20,000 people. These are precious memories for me now.
“Honestly, my dad is a bit dramatic,” Fudd said. “When I heard him say that, I just rolled my eyes.”
Back in Shoreview, after dinner, Grandma Karen began her mediation. That morning, she had asked Tim and Azzi to make lists of pros and cons for each school. She asked her son-in-law and granddaughter to share between them without judgment or interruption.
As Azzi read his list, Tim was surprised at the depth of his thinking. “We knew who the [programs] were, but I didn’t know why she liked them, ”he said, reflecting on the conversation.
The next morning, Azzi walked over to Grandma Karen’s office from her upstairs bedroom. She found her grandmother sitting behind her desk. Azzi sat on the floor and played with her dog, Curry. Karen asks Azzi what she thought of the conversation the night before. Azzi said she thought about everything Tim had said and the arguments that forced mediation. She thought about what she wanted out of her basketball career and the importance of having her parents, who had always been her coaches, in the stands. She started to make a decision, but she still needed more time.
Sitting in the backseat of the family van as her father drove down I-84, a few miles from the UConn exit, about six hours from home, Fudd decided the time was right. It was October 22nd and they were on their way to Storrs to surprise Paige Bueckers, now a UConn recruit and Fudd’s best friend, on her birthday.
In the months that had passed since Grandma Karen’s dining room, Azzi’s decision had crystallized.
With only three of them, nothing could derail the discussion. No last minute training or evening naps. No distraction at all, just the three of us in the tight spaces of their beige Chrysler Pacifica.
“You should do your homework,” Katie said from the front of the van.
“Ugh,” Azzi scoffed. She replied, “Don’t you mean schools?”
“OK,” Katie said.
Azzi paused.
“I’m going to UConn,” she said.
As the words left his mouth, Azzi saw Tim’s shoulders, which had risen in anticipation from the driver’s seat, relax. He sighed in relief. It was finished.
Katie turned away from the passenger seat and smiled, “I’m so proud of you.”
Fudd’s engagement could give the Huskies the No.1 recruiting class for the first time since 2012.
At Storrs, she will join a deep backcourt, which is expected to feature the best No.1 prospect of 2018, Christyn Williams and Bueckers, the best rookie in the 2020 class. UConn hasn’t won a championship since 2016 – a brief drop from domination that seems ridiculous to even contemplate. But UConn spent more than four years without a championship twice since his first victory in 1995.
So how many championships does Fudd want?
“Well, obviously four,” she said.
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