Azzi Fudd discusses her upcoming season and her subsequent challenge on reside taping of “Good Recreation with Sarah Spain” at WNBA All-Star Weekend.
This week, we share a particular episode of “Good Recreation with Sarah Spain”, produced by iHeartPodcasts, that includes an interview with UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd.
This episode was recorded reside on the first-ever “Jam Periods” in-person podcast occasion hosted by iHeart Girls’s Sports activities and Ensemble on Friday, July 18, 2025, throughout the ladies’s basketball All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis.
In as we speak’s episode, Fudd (2025 NCAA Champion and Most Excellent Participant) sits down with Spain to debate how profitable a nationwide championship confirmed her a special facet of coach Geno Auriemma, how she handles moments of self-doubt, how working with a sports activities psychologist was a recreation changer for her, and utilizing her well-known associates (together with Paige Bueckers) to assist lock in visitors for her new iHeartPodcast, “Fudd Round and Discover Out”.
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Periods 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Periods 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Periods 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Periods 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Periods 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Periods 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Periods 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
- [13:40] – ON HEAD COACH GENO AURIEMMA
SPAIN: “How lengthy did Coach Geno Auriemma mean you can rejoice earlier than calling or sending a textual content about what to work on subsequent?”
FUDD: “Really, [the coaches] had been very chill. All of the alums all the time instructed us, once you win a nationwide championship, you’re going to see a special facet of them. And that’s type of what it was…We might work out once we needed to, we might go elevate collectively, and then you definately would simply textual content and request one. It was type of bizarre.”
SPAIN: “Seems like a kinder, gentler Geno…”
FUDD: “[Alums] have some nice tales, however they positively say that he has gotten a little bit nicer over time. They inform horror apply tales and I’m simply grateful that I didn’t expertise that. Don’t let that idiot you. He’s candy, he has his moments, however he nonetheless has that toughness, that meanness in him.”
- [16:20] – ON HOW THE TEAM WANTED TO WIN FOR EACH OTHER
SPAIN: “This season was an enormous one for UConn. Earlier than you ever gained all of it, there was a lot strain already on the staff. And there was loads of dialog particularly about making an attempt to get Paige Bueckers a title earlier than she graduated. This concept that she can be probably the most adorned and celebrated participant at UConn who didn’t find yourself with a hoop earlier than she left. Is that one thing you all talked about overtly?…”
FUDD: “I wouldn’t say that we talked about it an excessive amount of. I believe it was simply that factor that all of us knew –– all of us knew that was a objective. All of us needed to win, clearly, however then it was additionally that we needed to do it for Paige, for all of our seniors, as a result of it was their final go round at it…We’re such a detailed staff that we need to do every little thing for one another. And so we needed to win, but it surely was even sweeter attending to do it with them, for them.”
- [17:15] – ON BEING EXCITED TO RETURN FOR ANOTHER SEASON AFTER WINNING BIG
SPAIN: “Did you’ve got any thought proper after you gained to love, ooh, ought to I simply depart proper now on prime? Was there any a part of you that was like, oh gosh, now I gotta return and take a look at once more?”
FUDD: “No, actually, it made me extra excited to return again to do it once more. So I believe getting a style of what that felt like, I used to be like, ‘Okay, we have to do that once more. We have to make this occur once more.”
- [18:10] – ON PREPARING TO BE A LEADER NEXT YEAR AND SUMMER WORKOUTS
FUDD: “Our staff is tremendous particular within the sense that everybody is tremendous motivated by themselves. I imply, you need to have that simply to be at UConn, however simply in our summer time exercises, you may inform. Yeah, we gained a nationwide championship, however in Could, they had been placing in work on their very own. We got here again in June and we had some actually nice summer time exercises. So it was actually motivating to get that type of sneak peek of what the staff goes to appear like… So I believe we’ve got a very good basis.”
- [19:10] – PLAYING WITHOUT BUECKERS IS GOING TO BE WEIRD
FUDD: “It’s bizarre being the oldest. I don’t know. I really feel previous. Freshmen are coming in, they’re 17, and I’m like, ugh. They’re speaking about all the highschool slang and mind rot. We’re not that [far] aside, but it surely feels prefer it. It’s going to be bizarre not having [Paige], clearly. But it surely’s going to be enjoyable, and I’m tremendous excited for what this yr goes to carry for me.”
- [19:40] – WHAT FANS CAN EXPECT FROM HER NEW PODCAST “FUDD AROUND AND FIND OUT”
FUDD: “I’m excited as a result of it’s only a method for individuals to get to know extra about me outdoors of what you see out on the court docket. Get to know what my everyday appears to be like like. Some stuff about my household, my teammates, we’ll have completely different individuals on, it’s gonna be enjoyable and lightweight. I hope individuals take pleasure in listening to it.”
- [26:15] – AZZI SAYS PAIGE WAS THE ORIGIN OF HER “PEOPLE’S PRINCESS” NICKNAME
SPAIN: “Nicely, you have already got an organization title, proper? The Individuals’s Princess, proper? We might trademark that. What’s the origin of that nickname?”
FUDD: “I really don’t know. I actually don’t know. I believe Paige made a remark about how I’m the princess as a result of Coach doesn’t yell at me and by some means that morphed into individuals calling me the ‘individuals’s princess.’ Yeah, I’m probably not positive. I do know I’m not mad about it although.”
- [28:30] – SHE HAS STARTED WORKING WITH A SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST TO PROCESS NEGATIVITY AND PRESSURE IN THE SPORT
FUDD: “I’ve an unbelievable help system round me with my teammates, my household. I additionally began speaking to a sports activities psychologist and I believe that’s been the largest recreation changer this previous yr for me. As an athlete, you’re all the time instructed to push by means of and so that you do, however with the ability to discuss this stuff and determine completely different methods to have the ability to bounce again a little bit bit quicker –– I believe that has been simply the largest factor for me. So to have the ability to not let these issues trouble me as a lot, allow them to roll off like, the following one’s entering into, however actually consider it.”
- [32:00] – HOW SHE HANDLES NEGATIVE COMMENTS THAT HAVE COME WITH THE GROWTH OF WOMEN’S SPORTS
FUDD: “I really like interacting with followers, after I see [negative] messages like that, these persons are hiding behind their screens, they couldn’t reside a day doing what I do and I’m absolutely conscious of that. So figuring out that the individuals round me and my circle are the one voices and opinions that matter to me, I believe that’s the place I don’t let that stuff trouble me.”
- [32:30] – HER DREAM GUESTS FOR HER NEW PODCAST, INCLUDING PAIGE
SPAIN: “We noticed Paige Bueckers within the trailer. Can we count on her to be an early visitor on the pod?”
FUDD: “Oh for positive. Keep in mind? I gotta use the individuals round me. I’ve to make use of the cool individuals round me…Nicely, I’m gonna get Alicia Keys on the pod. Clearly, [I am] gonna her once more –– my BFF, we’re besties. Barack Obama.”
