Geno Auriemma Shares His Positive Message to Azzi Fudd After UConn Star's Injury

The UConn Huskies women's basketball team dodged a bullet on Tuesday.

This is because it has been revealed that superstar guard Azzi Fudd suffered a minor sprain to her knee and is likely out for this week, according to UConn WBB Weekly's Daniel Connolly. After that, she'll be considered day-to-day.

Fudd's knee sprain came in the third quarter of UConn's December 7 game against the Louisville Cardinals. Fudd — who missed almost all of the 2023-24 season due to a torn ACL in her knee — was defending when she fell awkwardly after getting screened. She then went straight to the locker room.

This prompted fear among Huskies fans that Fudd suffered another serious injury to one of her knees, less than a month after returning from the last ACL tear.

However, fans felt a bit better once Fudd returned to UConn's bench a few minutes later. And once she got there, someone at the game took a photo of her sharing an embrace with Auriemma.

Azzi fudd you are so loved 🥹🥹 you deserve the world and more pic.twitter.com/JFqRxy0bwq
— hana (@_bueckers5) December 8, 2024

Auriemma spoke about this wholesome interaction to the media on Tuesday.

"You know, I sat down next to her on the bench and I told her 'This is not gonna go the way it has gone in the past.' So we just needed to inject some positive thinking there," Auriemma said.

"Given the alternative, I think she's pretty pleased."

The way geno said it just made me feel so much better pic.twitter.com/zgpXeIQA26
— td35 (@td_35_) December 10, 2024

After Saturday's game, Auriemma was quoted saying, "It didn't look like worst case scenario, let's put it that way. That we were all crossing our fingers and hoping.

"We'll know more when we get back. I hope I'm right — but it's not that worst case scenario that we've seen so many times before," he added.

And he was spot-on with that assessment; much to the delight of him, Fudd, and all UConn Huskies fans.