Azzi Fudd still ailing from NCAA championship game loss, says she wants to forget 2022 experience

UConn Huskies guard Azzi Fudd is about to play in her second-ever NCAA national championship game. On Friday, the Huskies defeated the first seed overall in the UCLA Bruins by 34 points, 85–51, for their Final Four matchup as they now book their ticket to this year's winner-take-all national title fixture.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, Fudd detailed that she is still ailing from the experience she got in the 2022 national tournament, specifically what led to the culmination that led them to lose that year.

"Yeah, I would say the entirety of my freshman year," Fudd said. "I didn't play the way I wanted to. I felt like I wasn't myself, I was kind of a shell of myself. I think especially in the Final Four, the pressure I put on myself, the nerves that I had like I told people before that I barely remember the Stanford game, and that was such a huge moment. I don't remember much of it." (0:05)

Fudd then reminisced about her experience right before she and her squad fought for the national title.

"I was just so nervous," Fudd said. "We went to dinner right before the championship game, and I don't know what, I was the only one who got it, I don't know if I got food poisoning or what but I was up all night, throwing up, and it was awful. I didn't go to shoot-around. The doctors had to put an IV in me. They used every needle they had cause they couldn't find a vein.

I was so dehydrated, and I hate needles. So, that was traumatic on its own. So, I was exhausted during the game. I was already nervous, already worried about how I was going to play and then I was so tired. I felt like I was pulling a truck." (0:20)

The 2025 national championship game between the Geno Auriemma-coached Huskies and the South Carolina Gamecocks is slated for Sunday at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.

Azzi Fudd says she did not pick up anything from the 2022 finals game for this year's national tourney final

Given her nerve-wracking experience leading up to the 2022 national championship game, Azzi Fudd asserts she did not take anything from that time that she can use as a positive for this year's national title fixture.

"So, someone asked me yesterday, I get to play in the national championship game my freshman year, is there any like lessons or advice, something I can take with me?" Fudd said. "I said absolutely nothing. I want to leave that game in the past and I wanna do nothing the same.

That's exactly why I'm not going to get brussel sprouts tonight because I had brussel sprouts get out of my nose, too much information, but I plan on enjoying tomorrow. I plan on having fun with my team. I plan on remembering it. It's going to be a special day." (1:00)

Fudd is averaging 13.3 points, 1.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game in her fourth year with the UConn Huskies.