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On July 6, 2021, a very warm, sunny day in Storrs, everyone outdoors, still wearing masks and social distancing, Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd appeared out back of the Werth Family Center to perform together for the first time.
Their debut on the court as a backcourt tandem was a few months away, but for the first time their long talked-about friendship, the chemistry, the whole opposites-attract thing, the sister act, was on stage for the state’s media and, by extension, the fan base beyond.
“This is something we’ve talked about since we first met each other, playing together, how well we gelled on the court and the chemistry we had,” Bueckers said that day. “It’s been a project ever since I committed to UConn to get her to come here with me. For her to finally be here, it’s kind of crazy.”
Dom Amore: Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, charisma and chemistry, an odd couple ready to win and entertain at UConn
Here began the Age of Paige and Azzi. How crazy it would be, no one, including Bueckers and Fudd, could have guessed. No one could have imagined how it would end, or even when it would end or, until only six weeks were left in their fourth and final season together, that it would end with a national championship — a “fairy tale” title, Bueckers would describe it, even though many thought national championships, plural, were inevitable once the No. 1 recruits in the country in 2020 and 2021 joined forces.
Bueckers was the gregarious one, Fudd the serious, studious one. Buecker always had the needle, Fudd the comebacks. When they played H-O-R-S-E, Bueckers said, “We both hate losing, but we hate losing to each other more than anything.”
As a pair, all they really lost, or were denied at UConn was time, time together.
When they walked off the floor, arm in arm, in Spokane, Wash., after Fudd missed her first nine shots, but hit two crucial ones down the stretch as the Huskies beat Southern Cal to reach the Final Four, Bueckers chided her one last time, “you Okay? You saving all your shots for Tampa?”
Then at the Final Four in Tampa, Fudd had the comeback, and showed the country how good a player she can be when playing free and easy, neither hampered by a knee injury, nor just returning from one and shaking off the rust. She scored 19 in the first half of the semifinal to fire the Huskies’ blowout of UCLA, and scored 24 in the win over South Carolina on Sunday, so satisfying after she tried to play in the 2022 championship game with some type of stomach bug, the only championship game UConn men or women have ever lost.
Their story now belongs to UConn history, and details will fade in memory. Bueckers and Fudd rarely got to play together at UConn, only 17 games before this season began, only 49 across four years. Fudd missed much of her freshman year, and Bueckers missed a big chunk of it with a knee injury. They gave us a glimpse in the 2022 Elite Eight game in Bridgeport, an overtime win over NC State.
Then Bueckers missed all of her third year with a torn ACL; when she returned, Fudd missed nearly all of 2023-24 with an ACL tear. Bueckers returned for a fifth year, and both she and Fudd missed time with knee injuries this past season. Finally, on Feb. 16, we saw Bueckers’ and Fudd healthy together, Paige’s playmaking in sync with Azzi’s shot-making, along with and freshman sensation Sarah Strong. The Huskies blew out South Carolina and, from then on, it was clear no one in the country could match their “Big Three.”
Who is to say that Bueckers and Fudd, together with Aaliyah Edwards, wouldn’t have been such a Big Three and produced one or two titles before 2025? It’s imponderable. And it’s academic. At the very end, with Bueckers declaring her intention to forego a possible sixth year and enter the WNBA Draft and Fudd, graduated but working toward an MBA, the duo was as dynamic as was anticipated from the very beginning, from that hot July day.
And now, as the Huskies are celebrated for championship No. 12, the first in nine years, at the parade in Hartford on Sunday, Bueckers departs and Fudd, who has announced she will return, will have the stage to herself for one season, a year later than normal. With the Sarah Strong going into her sophomore season, next year’s Huskies will be Fudd’s team to mold, to lead. With USC’s JuJu Watkins out for a year with her knee injury, Fudd could be the college game’s highest-profile star in 2025-26.
Dom Amore: A dynasty restored, Paige Bueckers, UConn women leave no unfinished business
“I don’t know if I’ll be the face of women’s basketball, or even the face of this team,” Fudd said. “This team is so strong and so powerful in so many ways, we’re going to share that position. But I do think I’m ready to step up, and I think every single one of my teammates is also ready to step up. … I’m definitely going to have to be vocal next year. That’s something I’ve always taken for granted having Paige, having Nika (Muhl), having Kaitlyn (Chen), so that’s going to be the biggest difference, using my voice, getting on guys. Knowing that’s what the team needs from me, I’m never someone to shy away from what the team needs.”
At the Final Four, Fudd was more than just a gifted perimeter shooter. She made only one 3-pointer in the championship game, showing off her ability to drive the lane, handle the ball and, as always, play solid defense. Bueckers, whether playing, planning it or not, casts a wide shadow. Next season, Fudd will be in the sunlight herself.
This has always been what separates Geno Auriemma’s and Chris Dailey’s program from the rest, the overlapping of All-Americans, the passing of a torch from one potential Hall of Famer to another. But it has never happened quite this way.
So maybe The Age of Paige and Azzi couldn’t be everything everyone thought it would be in July 2021. But in so many ways, it turned out to be more than anyone could have ever hoped or dreamed it would be.
“It’s been a story of resilience,” Bueckers said. “Of gratitude, of adversity, of overcoming adversity, just responding to life’s challenges and trying to fuel them to make me a better person, a better player … I’m sure if you asked her, (Azzi) 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.”
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Their debut on the court as a backcourt tandem was a few months away, but for the first time their long talked-about friendship, the chemistry, the whole opposites-attract thing, the sister act, was on stage for the state’s media and, by extension, the fan base beyond.
“This is something we’ve talked about since we first met each other, playing together, how well we gelled on the court and the chemistry we had,” Bueckers said that day. “It’s been a project ever since I committed to UConn to get her to come here with me. For her to finally be here, it’s kind of crazy.”
Dom Amore: Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, charisma and chemistry, an odd couple ready to win and entertain at UConn
Here began the Age of Paige and Azzi. How crazy it would be, no one, including Bueckers and Fudd, could have guessed. No one could have imagined how it would end, or even when it would end or, until only six weeks were left in their fourth and final season together, that it would end with a national championship — a “fairy tale” title, Bueckers would describe it, even though many thought national championships, plural, were inevitable once the No. 1 recruits in the country in 2020 and 2021 joined forces.
Bueckers was the gregarious one, Fudd the serious, studious one. Buecker always had the needle, Fudd the comebacks. When they played H-O-R-S-E, Bueckers said, “We both hate losing, but we hate losing to each other more than anything.”
As a pair, all they really lost, or were denied at UConn was time, time together.
When they walked off the floor, arm in arm, in Spokane, Wash., after Fudd missed her first nine shots, but hit two crucial ones down the stretch as the Huskies beat Southern Cal to reach the Final Four, Bueckers chided her one last time, “you Okay? You saving all your shots for Tampa?”
Then at the Final Four in Tampa, Fudd had the comeback, and showed the country how good a player she can be when playing free and easy, neither hampered by a knee injury, nor just returning from one and shaking off the rust. She scored 19 in the first half of the semifinal to fire the Huskies’ blowout of UCLA, and scored 24 in the win over South Carolina on Sunday, so satisfying after she tried to play in the 2022 championship game with some type of stomach bug, the only championship game UConn men or women have ever lost.
Their story now belongs to UConn history, and details will fade in memory. Bueckers and Fudd rarely got to play together at UConn, only 17 games before this season began, only 49 across four years. Fudd missed much of her freshman year, and Bueckers missed a big chunk of it with a knee injury. They gave us a glimpse in the 2022 Elite Eight game in Bridgeport, an overtime win over NC State.
Then Bueckers missed all of her third year with a torn ACL; when she returned, Fudd missed nearly all of 2023-24 with an ACL tear. Bueckers returned for a fifth year, and both she and Fudd missed time with knee injuries this past season. Finally, on Feb. 16, we saw Bueckers’ and Fudd healthy together, Paige’s playmaking in sync with Azzi’s shot-making, along with and freshman sensation Sarah Strong. The Huskies blew out South Carolina and, from then on, it was clear no one in the country could match their “Big Three.”
Who is to say that Bueckers and Fudd, together with Aaliyah Edwards, wouldn’t have been such a Big Three and produced one or two titles before 2025? It’s imponderable. And it’s academic. At the very end, with Bueckers declaring her intention to forego a possible sixth year and enter the WNBA Draft and Fudd, graduated but working toward an MBA, the duo was as dynamic as was anticipated from the very beginning, from that hot July day.
And now, as the Huskies are celebrated for championship No. 12, the first in nine years, at the parade in Hartford on Sunday, Bueckers departs and Fudd, who has announced she will return, will have the stage to herself for one season, a year later than normal. With the Sarah Strong going into her sophomore season, next year’s Huskies will be Fudd’s team to mold, to lead. With USC’s JuJu Watkins out for a year with her knee injury, Fudd could be the college game’s highest-profile star in 2025-26.
Dom Amore: A dynasty restored, Paige Bueckers, UConn women leave no unfinished business
“I don’t know if I’ll be the face of women’s basketball, or even the face of this team,” Fudd said. “This team is so strong and so powerful in so many ways, we’re going to share that position. But I do think I’m ready to step up, and I think every single one of my teammates is also ready to step up. … I’m definitely going to have to be vocal next year. That’s something I’ve always taken for granted having Paige, having Nika (Muhl), having Kaitlyn (Chen), so that’s going to be the biggest difference, using my voice, getting on guys. Knowing that’s what the team needs from me, I’m never someone to shy away from what the team needs.”
At the Final Four, Fudd was more than just a gifted perimeter shooter. She made only one 3-pointer in the championship game, showing off her ability to drive the lane, handle the ball and, as always, play solid defense. Bueckers, whether playing, planning it or not, casts a wide shadow. Next season, Fudd will be in the sunlight herself.
This has always been what separates Geno Auriemma’s and Chris Dailey’s program from the rest, the overlapping of All-Americans, the passing of a torch from one potential Hall of Famer to another. But it has never happened quite this way.
So maybe The Age of Paige and Azzi couldn’t be everything everyone thought it would be in July 2021. But in so many ways, it turned out to be more than anyone could have ever hoped or dreamed it would be.
“It’s been a story of resilience,” Bueckers said. “Of gratitude, of adversity, of overcoming adversity, just responding to life’s challenges and trying to fuel them to make me a better person, a better player … I’m sure if you asked her, (Azzi) 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.”
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