Azzi Fudd Named 2025-26 Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year

STORRS, CT — University of Connecticut women's basketball graduate student Azzi Fudd Wednesday was named the 2025-26 Big East Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

The selection was made by the Conference's Academic Awards Selection Committee.

Fudd will receive a $2,000 scholarship, which may be applied to graduate or professional studies. Fudd is currently pursuing a master’s in business administration after graduating with her bachelor’s degree in communication in May 2024.

Fudd is a four-time Big East All-Academic Team member and an eight-time Director of Athletics’ Honor Roll selection;. She is maintaining a 3.570 cumulative grade-point average.

On the court, Fudd is having her best collegiate season. She is averaging a career-high 17.9 points per game on personal-best shooting percentages (.490/.451/.950). Fudd has already set single-season career highs in rebounds (80), assists (92) and steals (78).

Fudd ranks second nationally in three pointers made (96) and ninth in three-point percentage (45.1).

Fudd is an AAU Sullivan Award finalist and on the Naismith Trophy Late-Season Team, the Wooden Award late midseason watch list and Ann Meyers Drysdale candidate list. She was named Big East Player of the Week four times this season.

She was named the 2025 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player, leading the Huskies to the 2025 NCAA Championship.

Off the court, Fudd is an active member of her community. This past summer, she hosted the ninth annual Azzi Fudd Hooping for a Cure Basketball Camp, which has raised funds for the Pat Summitt Foundation and the Abby Zittoun Family Foundation. In 2024 and 2025, Fudd volunteered at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, supporting the camp's efforts to give kids with illnesses a normal camp experience. She’s spent the past three years volunteering at Geno’s For the Kids Charity Dinner and Charity Golf Tournament, which raises funds for the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

Fudd also volunteers at Connecticut Children’s Medical Cemnter, visiting with patients and creating lasting relationships.

A UConn women’s basketball student-athlete has earned Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year nine times: Leigh Curl (1984-85), Wendy Davis (1991-92), Rebecca Lobo (1993-95), Jennifer Rizzotti (1995-96), Maya Moore (2009-11), Paige Bueckers (2023-24) and Fudd (2025-26).

The Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year award is one of a number of scholarships presented by the conference during the 2025-26 academic year. In addition, 22 student-athletes (one male and one female from each of the Big East's 11 member institutions will receive postgraduate scholarships as the winners of their respective institutions' Scholar-Athlete Award. The winners of the institutional awards are then eligible for the Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, which provides an additional postgraduate scholarship to one male and one female student-athlete.