NEW YORK — Before Monday night, Azzi Fudd thought she understood what to expect from the WNBA Draft experience.
Fudd was a spectator at two drafts prior to support UConn women’s basketball teammates, first watching from the audience as Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Muhl were selected in 2024. Last year she sat beside Paige Bueckers at her draft table as the Huskies superstar went No. 1 overall to the Dallas Wings.
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But when commissioner Cathy Engelbert read her name aloud as Dallas’ second-straight No. 1 overall pick at the The Shed in Manhattan, Fudd felt wholly unprepared for the whirlwind of emotions that hit her. Her parents, Katie and Tim, were both teary eyed as they embraced their daughter, and the entire 2025-26 UConn roster stood along Fudd’s walk to the stage screaming and cheering at the top of their lungs.
“I’m not really sure I have words to describe that feeling,” Fudd said Monday night, wearing an almost incredulous smile as though the reality of the moment still hadn’t fully set in. “It’s nothing I could have imagined. Sitting there with my family and (UConn assistant coach Morgan Valley), hearing my name called and getting to walk up there, it’s just such a surreal feeling. I’m so grateful … Being in that chair, waiting for your name to get called, you can’t compare that to anything.”
UConn star Azzi Fudd picked No. 1 in WNBA Draft, reunites with Paige Bueckers on Dallas Wings
Getting to WNBA Draft night was a long and tumultuous road for Fudd, who thought when she arrived at UConn that she would be declaring in the 2025 class. The star guard, who tore her ACL for the first time as a junior in high school, grappled with injuries throughout her first four seasons with the Huskies, first a foot injury that sidelined her for 11 games in 2021-22, then a knee injury that kept her out of 22 in her sophomore year. She then suffered her second ACL tear two games into 2023-24 and missed the first three games of the following season to complete her recovery process.
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“You go through that phase of being injured where you’re like, ‘Will I make it back? Will I be the same player? Will I be good enough?’” Fudd told ESPN during the draft broadcast. “To be here, to be back, I think going through all that adversity and through those injuries has shown me that I am good enough. I am strong enough. I’m resilient … so it’s an even more full-circle moment.”
A year after leading UConn to the 2025 NCAA championship as the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, Fudd enters the WNBA fresh off the best season of her college career. She appeared in all 39 games for the first time in five years and earned consensus first team All-American honors, leading the country in made 3-pointers with the fifth-highest percentage in the nation.
When she was announced as the No. 1 pick, it wasn’t just in spite of the adversity she’s faced; It was in part because she’s proven how much she can overcome.
“We couldn’t be more pleased to draft Azzi Fudd, a true winner, competitor, hard worker, one of the most unselfish superstars at the collegiate level, and obviously has shown incredible perseverance throughout her collegiate career,” Wings general manager Curt Miller said Monday night. “The intangibles were ultimately the deciding factor for us. She’s a unifier in the locker room, a great teammate … so she adds to our incredible culture that we’re building down here in Dallas.”
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Fudd was high on Dallas’ radar from the very beginning, and one of head coach Jose Fernandez’s first stops when he was hired in late October was to Storrs to scout the UConn star. Miller said Monday that the Wings felt four players separated themselves at the top of this year’s draft, but Fudd solidified as their pick once dominoes started to fall in free agency.
Dallas added several major pieces to its frontcourt since the free agent signing period opened April 12, headlined by 2025 Co-Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith, a 6-foot-4 veteran forward. The Wings also signed veteran forward Jessica Shepard, who averaged eight points and five rebounds for the Minnesota Lynx in 2025, and 6-foot-5 center Awak Kuier will rejoin the team after spending the last two seasons playing overseas. Kuier was Dallas’ No. 2 pick in the 2021 draft and is one of just eight women ever to dunk in a WNBA game.
“What we addressed in free agency with our front line … I think now it’s a little bit more relaxed with the post players that we got, and that’s going to free (Fudd) up for a lot of things,” Fernandez said. “I just like how she’s going to get open in transition and also in the half court, where you can run so many things. Her as a shooter, running off pindowns, staggers off of flares, she reads defense as well when she curls. I think her versatility, along with with the people that we’re going to have on the floor with her, it’s going to take a lot of load off her coming in as a rookie.”
Fudd’s defining trait is her elite outside shooting, an area where the Wings struggled in 2025. Four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbowale had the least efficient season of her professional career hitting 30.4% from 3-point range after averaging at least 34% in each of the previous six years. Bueckers shot just 33.1% beyond the arc, and Dallas ranked second-to-last in the league in 3-point percentage as a team hitting 30.4%.
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Miller said Fudd’s leap as a defender during her redshirt senior season at UConn was also a differentiator. She went from averaging 1.4 steals per game in 2024-25 to 2.5 this year, and she ranked top 10 in the country in both defensive rating and win shares.
“Her compete level at the defensive end of the floor this year was truly special as we watched more and more games,” Miller said. “Her confidence at the defensive end was impressive to watch, and that growth from last year to this year.”
The addition of Fudd gives the Wings one of the most talented backcourt trios in the league alongside Bueckers and Ogunbowale. The biggest question is whether the three star guards will be able to function together as a unit and maximize each other’s skillsets. There was a learning curve just for Bueckers and Ogunbowale playing together last season, and they never truly hit their stride with Ogunbowale sidelined for 15 games first by a hand injury in July, then by knee tendonitis in late August.
It helps that Bueckers and Fudd have extensive experience sharing the court, both in their time at UConn and in high school playing for the USA Basketball junior national team. Miller also said both Bueckers and Ogunbowale were collaborators in the team’s free agency and draft decisions, so he’s confident they will be able to excel together.
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“Azzi is the right fit with this group,” Miller said. “Paige and Arike have the ball, and Azzi fits because she’s so good off the ball. We thought that was a really great combination, and she’s unselfish and does all the little things … so we’re excited about the pieces. It’s going to take a little bit of time for Jose to work his magic and to gel, but we’re truly excited about how Azzi fits as we put this together.”
Dom Amore: Azzi Fudd-Paige Bueckers collaboration will take it up another level in WNBA
