UConn Huskies star guard Azzi Fudd is not going to enter the 2025 WNBA Draft and can as an alternative return to Storrs, Connecticut for the 2025-2026 girls’s faculty basketball season.
Fudd, who’s eligible for the draft as a junior as a result of she’s already 22 years outdated, introduced she’d be coming again to UConn on Tuesday morning on her Instagram, writing: “Hey Gampel, thanks for final evening… See you subsequent 12 months,” accompanied by the hashtag “#onemoreyear.”
In UConn’s second-round NCAA Event win on Monday evening over No. 10 South Dakota State, Fudd completed with 17 factors, two steals and a rebound in a lopsided 91-57 victory for the Huskies. This season, she’s averaging 13.4 factors, 2.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists per sport whereas capturing 45.3 p.c from 3-point land, which is twenty third within the nation.
Fudd instructed ESPN {that a} latest speak with longtime UConn coach Geno Auriemma helped her make her resolution.
“He stated, ‘I might say 10 video games, possibly, you’ve performed to your full potential of who Azzi Fudd actually is and so that you wouldn’t do your self justice leaving,’” Fudd recalled Auriemma saying. “You would go away right here not doing what you would in a UConn uniform.’ I used to be like, ‘Yeah, he has a degree.’”
UConn is now the favourite at many sportsbooks to win the nationwide championship this 12 months after USC star sophomore JuJu Watkins suffered what appears to be a season-ending ACL tear within the Trojans’ second-round win on Monday evening over Mississippi State. Earlier than a possible matchup with the Trojans within the Elite Eight, UConn should first defeat Oklahoma within the Candy 16.
Fudd is having fun with the healthiest season of her profession after battling accidents early in her time at UConn, together with a torn ACL in November 2023. Fudd was ranked because the No. 1 recruit in her 2021 highschool class and has lengthy been heralded for her clean, near-perfect, textbook jumpshot.
Different gamers with the choice to enter the WNBA Draft this 12 months or subsequent might comply with her path as a result of choosing the 2026 draft could also be extra profitable. Salaries within the league are anticipated to extend as gamers negotiate a brand new collective bargaining settlement.
Auriemma lately instructed Maggie Vanoni of CT Insider: “If (Fudd) stays yet another 12 months, she’ll earn more money subsequent 12 months when she goes into the draft as a result of they’ve a brand new collective bargaining settlement developing that ought to pay them more cash than if she goes on the finish of this 12 months.”
There’s a great likelihood Fudd would have been a first-round decide on this spring’s draft, the place her teammate Paige Bueckers is anticipated to go No. 1 total. If Fudd retains enjoying this effectively, she’s a possible lock to be a excessive first-round decide subsequent 12 months too.
