College Sports |

UConn women’s basketball star Azzi Fudd likely out for top-10 matchup vs. Notre Dame with minor knee sprain

STORRS — UConn women’s basketball star Azzi Fudd suffered a minor sprain in her right knee in a win over Louisville on Saturday, and she is expected to miss the No. 2 Huskies’ rivalry matchup against No. 8 Notre Dame on Thursday.

Coach Geno Auriemma said Tuesday that Fudd is “probably out” this week, meaning she will also likely miss the team’s Big East opener against Georgetown on Sunday at Gampel Pavilion. After that, her status will be day-to-day. Fudd sat out the first three games of 2024-25 recovering from a right ACL and medial meniscus tear sustained two games into the 2023-24 season, and she has since played five games making two starts for the Huskies. Fudd is averaging 10 points on 50% shooting from the field in less than 20 minutes per game, and she scored 18 points in 18 minutes against Louisville.

“It’s probably the first good news I’ve ever gotten from Dr. (Kathy) Coyner. She was so excited,” Auriemma said. “If you can imagine what the alternative could have been, (Fudd’s) spirits are pretty good. I sat down next to her on the bench, and I told her, ‘This is not going to go the way it’s gone in the past.’ … Nobody wants to miss time, nobody wants to miss games, but given the alternative, I think she’s pretty pleased.”

Fudd injured her knee in the third quarter of UConn’s 85-52 win over Louisville while jostling for position on defense. She appeared to get tangled between a pair of Cardinals players and briefly fell to the ground holding her right knee. She got up and remained in the game for almost a minute, hitting a 3-pointer before Auriemma called a timeout after she was slow recovering defensively. Fudd walked to the locker room unassisted and returned with under three minutes left in the quarter, giving a thumbs up to her teammates on the bench. The redshirt junior did not check back in for the rest of the game with the Huskies holding a comfortable lead.

Fudd has been plagued by injuries throughout her career and has never played more than 25 games in a college season. She previously tore her right ACL as a junior in high school and grappled with a lingering foot injury that caused her to miss 11 games as a freshman at UConn. She then sat out of 22 games with a pair of undisclosed right knee injuries in 2022-23 before suffering the ACL and meniscus tear last season. The last time she appeared in more than six games consecutively was from Nov. 10 to Dec. 2 in 2022.

“As people who know her, who are like family, just for her to keep going through these things, even this situation is unfortunate. It’s just very frustrating because she’s just coming back,” Huskies star Paige Bueckers said. “She’s been looking great the past couple of games, so it’s much better that it’s a minor setback, and I know she’s going to stay hungry, stay in the weight room and continue to do everything that she can to get back on the court as soon as possible.”

Sophomore Ashlynn Shade, who started the first three games of the season, will likely return to the lineup in Fudd’s absence. Shade averaged 9.3 points on 48% shooting plus 3.3 steals across her three starts and anchored the bench with 13 points against Louisville, so Bueckers said she doesn’t expect there to be any significant drop off with Shade back in the starting group.

“I feel like they’re very interchangeable at times,” Bueckers said. “They both bring great things on the offensive side — scoring, shooting the ball, making plays, being aggressive. Then on defense, they can both get in passing lanes and disrupt, so honestly, I really expect great things from whoever starts in that position.”

Auriemma also updated the status of Ayanna Patterson, who missed all of the 2023-24 season to have surgery for patellar tendonitis. Patterson was a full participant for most of the preseason but suffered a left shoulder injury in practice that has kept her sidelined since the season began. She began participating in full contact again in late November but re-aggravated the injury in practice while the Huskies were competing in the Baha Mar Women’s Championship in Nassau, Bahamas. Auriemma said the redshirt sophomore is weighing the possibility of undergoing season-ending surgery on her shoulder, but no official decision has been made.

“That decision is going to be made soon, and if it does happen, it’s going to happen soon,” Auriemma said. “We just don’t have a date … The kid can’t catch a break right now.”

Auriemma said sixth-year senior Aubrey Griffin, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear in January, is still on track to return for the Huskies in the new year. Griffin has participated in game day warmups with the team several times throughout the start of the season. Redshirt junior Caroline Ducharme is the only injured player that has not yet gone through a pregame warmup, and Auriemma said the team is still taking her recovery day by day. Ducharme, who missed all but four games last season, has grappled with head and neck injuries since her freshman year and remains a limited participant in practices with no clear timeline for her return.

“Aubrey’s playing a lot of simulated games, doing more and more every day in practice. Now it’s more of, how does her body respond the day after practice?” Auriemma said. “As that gets better and better over time, we’ll be closer … Caroline is doing all right. It’s just one of those, how are you today? … I know she wants to play so bad. She gets so pissed when we take her off the court. She wants to play so bad.”