History has a way of repeating itself at UConn — and on Monday night, it did so again in the most emphatic way possible.
Azzi Fudd was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings, with the announcement made at The Shed at Hudson Yards in New York City. For Fudd, it was the culmination of a college career defined as much by resilience as by brilliance — and for UConn, it was yet another landmark moment in a program that has become almost embarrassingly good at producing generational talent.
A Lineage That Speaks for Itself
Fudd is now the seventh No. 1 pick in UConn program history — a list so stacked it almost reads like a Hall of Fame ballot. She joins Sue Bird (2002), Diana Taurasi (2004), Tina Charles (2010), Maya Moore (2011), Breanna Stewart (2016) and Paige Bueckers (2025), who went No. 1 just a year before her. That’s back-to-back top picks from Storrs, Connecticut. At this point, the Huskies aren’t just a basketball program — they’re a pipeline that the rest of women’s college basketball can only watch with a mix of admiration and exhaustion.
The Big East confirmed the selection, noting Fudd’s extensive honors: she earned 2026 All-America recognition from the WBCA, AP and USBWA, was a unanimous All-BIG EAST First Team selection, and — perhaps most memorably — took home the 2025 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player award. She didn’t just perform on the biggest stage. She owned it.
More Than a Shooter
Here’s the thing about Azzi Fudd that might actually surprise people who’ve only watched her from a distance: yes, she’s a shooter. An extraordinary one. She connected on 42.2% of her three-point attempts across her college career — a number that makes NBA front offices jealous, let alone WNBA ones. ESPN noted she should be a natural fit alongside Dallas’s existing roster, precisely because of that off-ball gravity she creates.
But reducing her to a spot-up shooter would be a mistake — and one the Wings clearly aren’t making. As described by draft analysts, “UConn guard Azzi Fudd is arguably the best off-ball shooting prospect in WNBA draft history and has grown her game beyond just being a shooter.” That growth — the reads, the movement, the ability to function as more than a trigger — is what separates a good prospect from a franchise-altering one.
What Dallas Gets
The Wings have had their share of struggles in recent seasons. Drafting first overall isn’t exactly a sign that everything’s been going smoothly. Still, there’s a reason teams covet this kind of pick, and Fudd represents exactly the sort of foundational piece a rebuilding franchise dreams about — a player whose floor is “elite role player” and whose ceiling is something considerably harder to put a ceiling on.
Her combination of shooting range, off-ball intelligence and competitive pedigree — forged under one of the most demanding programs in the country — gives Dallas something it can build around. And given that her immediate predecessor at UConn, Bueckers, went No. 1 and is already making waves in the league, the blueprint isn’t exactly unproven.
Seven No. 1 picks. One program. At some point, you stop calling it a coincidence and start calling it a system — and Azzi Fudd is its latest, most polished product.
