The third episode of a new docuseries on Apple TV focused on the women’s basketball program Geno Auriemma has built at UConn is told mostly through the perspective of Paige Bueckers.
While the first two episodes of “The Dynasty: UConn Huskies” – which debuts on the streaming service on Friday, April 21 – detail the program’s rise and leans on archival footage, the third and final episode zooms in on the Huskies’ 2024-25 season, which ended with Bueckers and Azzi Fudd leading them to their 12th national championship.
Advertisement
But getting UConn back to the mountaintop of women’s college basketball wasn’t easy. Filmmakers of the series dove deep into the push-pull dynamic between Bueckers and Auriemma, how the two didn’t speak to each other for weeks at one point in the season, and how Auriemma challenged Bueckers after UConn’s loss to Tennessee in front of the team during a film session. In the documentary, Bueckers called that film session “devastating” and questioned if she still wanted to be at UConn.
“Coach questioned my ability to get the best out of my teammates, but I’m not the type to like cuss somebody out and like kick them off the court and be an (expletive), in a sense,” Bueckers says. “Just comparing how I would lead to like how Diana (Taurasi) would lead. No two people are the same. But at some point you just get sick and tired of hearing it.”
It was in those moments where she leaned on her girlfriend and teammate, Fudd.
Advertisement
Bueckers and Fudd both talk in the docuseries about their relationship, something they have often been coy about in public.
“Paige and I are a couple,” Fudd says. “Everyone close to us that was important knew, but it was kind of one of those things, it’s just private. Not a secret, but it’s private.”
Bueckers spoke about how crucial it was for her to have Fudd in her corner during those difficult moments with Auriemma.
“I think it’s really important to have somebody to confide in that is understanding of what I was going through,” Bueckers said. “Azzi ended up joining the team my sophomore year. It kind of just meshed as soon as we met. She’s sweet, she’s genuine, she has a huge, caring heart. We kind of felt a spark a little bit different than what would be considered a normal friendship.”
Advertisement
On Bueckers’ battles with Auriemma, Fudd said everything was often portrayed as “all Paige’s fault” when things weren’t going right with the team.
“We had conversations about everything that was going on,” Fudd says. “She had said to me, ‘I came back for my fifth year because I thought we were going to have things figured out and it was going to be fun.’ She basically said, ‘It’s the exact opposite of that.'”
After a players-only meeting following a loss to Tennessee on Feb. 6, 2025, UConn broke off a 16-game winning streak that saw them capture the Big East title and win the national championship. Bueckers was then drafted No. 1 overall in the WNBA draft by the Dallas Wings and a year later the Wings also selected Fudd with the top pick.
Around the time of the draft, much was made about Dallas using back-to-back No. 1 overall draft picks on two players who are in a romantic relationship. When Fudd was asked if she and Bueckers were still a couple at her introductory press conference in Dallas, a Wings’ staffer stepped in to decline an answer on Fudd’s behalf.
Advertisement
“I understand why you have to ask that question. But we are going to respectfully decline on commenting on a player’s personal life,” a Wings spokesperson said before moving on to the next question.
Bueckers is averaging 20.5 points and 5.8 assists per game in her second WNBA season while Fudd has established herself as one of the league’s top shooters, winning the 3-point contest at All-Star weekend. In Jose Fernandez’s first season as head coach, Dallas is on-track to make the playoffs.
For Matthew Hamachek, a co-director and executive producer on the UConn docuseries, it was enlightening for him to find out more about what Bueckers was going through during her final season with the Huskies.
“You know, they’re playing for national championships under the bright lights in front of millions of people. In Paige’s case, they’re going through very human, ordinary emotions and struggles,” Hamachek told USA TODAY Sports this week. “Paige had gone through this incredible journey of coming to UConn with all these expectations that, frankly, had been heaped on her since she was a little kid.”
Advertisement
After Auriemma called out Bueckers during that film session following the Tennessee game, she revealed to filmmakers that she almost quit.
“To Paige and Gino’s credit, they really were open about it, and I think it makes the third episode something that’s really, really special,” Hamachek said. “It was hard for me to sit across from (Bueckers) and watch her relive what she had gone through for five years at UConn psychologically, physically. … She could have chosen to just not want to share these things and she just talked about how kids that look up to her don’t look at her story and just see her hoisting a trophy over her head and confetti falling down. She wanted people to realize that this is incredibly hard.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd detail relationship in new UConn documentary
