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Azzi Fudd Shares Paige Bueckers Based UConn National Championship Motivation

UConn Huskies star Azzi Fudd sent a powerful message about why Paige Bueckers is her team's NCAA title motivation.
Grant Young|
Dec 7, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Connecticut Huskies guard Azzi Fudd (35) and Connecticut Huskies guard Paige Bueckers (5) celebrate after the game against the Louisville Cardinals at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Boland-Imagn Images
Dec 7, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Connecticut Huskies guard Azzi Fudd (35) and Connecticut Huskies guard Paige Bueckers (5) celebrate after the game against the Louisville Cardinals at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Boland-Imagn Images | Lucas Boland-Imagn Images

The UConn Huskies women's basketball team is four wins away from capturing the program's first NCAA National Championship trophy since 2016.

Of course, those four wins aren't going to come easily, starting with their Sweet Sixteen game against the No. 3-seeded Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday.

But the Huskies have to be feeling good about their chances right now, especially given how well Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, and Sarah Strong have looked in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

There has been a common narrative within the women's basketball community that if Bueckers doesn't manage to win a national title during her time at UConn, she'll go down as the greatest Huskies player in program history to never do so.

This is a lot of pressure for one player. However, in a March 26 article from ESPN, Azzi Fudd explained that their entire team is behind Bueckers when it comes to their championship motivations.

"I think a lot of us, our mindset is like, yes, we really want to win a national championship," Fudd said. "But I think most of us on the team are like, we want to do it for Paige. We've seen everything she's been through and everything that she does for us.

"We want to reciprocate that and do anything for her, and we know how badly she wants it," she added.

A team that's intrinsically motivated to attain glory — especially if it's on behalf of their leader — is a terrible team to contend with. And this is why UConn fans must love this sentiment from Fudd.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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