Azzi Fudd discusses her upcoming season and her subsequent venture on stay taping of “Good Sport with Sarah Spain” at WNBA All-Star Weekend.
This week, we share a particular episode of “Good Sport with Sarah Spain”, produced by iHeartPodcasts, that includes an interview with UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd.
This episode was recorded stay on the first-ever “Jam Classes” in-person podcast occasion hosted by iHeart Ladies’s Sports activities and Ensemble on Friday, July 18, 2025, throughout the girls’s basketball All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis.
In right this moment’s episode, Fudd (2025 NCAA Champion and Most Excellent Participant) sits down with Spain to debate how successful 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 friends for her new iHeartPodcast, “Fudd Round and Discover Out”.
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Middle
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Middle
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Middle
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Middle
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Middle
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Middle
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Middle
- [13:40] – ON HEAD COACH GENO AURIEMMA
SPAIN: “How lengthy did Coach Geno Auriemma assist you to have fun earlier than calling or sending a textual content about what to work on subsequent?”
FUDD: “Really, [the coaches] have been very chill. All of the alums at all times instructed us, if you win a nationwide championship, you’re going to see a special facet of them. And that’s sort of what it was…We’d work out after we needed to, we might go raise collectively, and then you definitely would simply textual content and request one. It was sort of bizarre.”
SPAIN: “Feels like a kinder, gentler Geno…”
FUDD: “[Alums] have some nice tales, however they undoubtedly say that he has gotten just a little nicer through the years. 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 stress already on the group. And there was plenty of dialog specifically about attempting to get Paige Bueckers a title earlier than she graduated. This concept that she could be probably the most embellished 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 brazenly?…”
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 aim. 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 group that we wish to do all the things for one another. And so we needed to win, nevertheless it 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 have got any thought proper after you gained to love, ooh, ought to I simply depart proper now on high? 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, truthfully, 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 group is tremendous particular within the sense that everybody is tremendous motivated by themselves. I imply, you must have that simply to be at UConn, however simply in our summer season exercises, you can inform. Yeah, we gained a nationwide championship, however in Could, they have been placing in work on their very own. We got here again in June and we had some actually nice summer season exercises. So it was actually motivating to get that sort of sneak peek of what the group goes to seem like… So I believe we’ve a extremely 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 outdated. 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, nevertheless it feels prefer it. It’s going to be bizarre not having [Paige], clearly. Nevertheless it’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 approach for folks to get to know extra about me exterior of what you see out on the court docket. Get to know what my day after day appears like. Some stuff about my household, my teammates, we’ll have completely different folks on, it’s gonna be enjoyable and lightweight. I hope folks take pleasure in listening to it.”
- [26:15] – AZZI SAYS PAIGE WAS THE ORIGIN OF HER “PEOPLE’S PRINCESS” NICKNAME
SPAIN: “Effectively, you have already got an organization title, proper? The Individuals’s Princess, proper? We may 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 folks calling me the ‘folks’s princess.’ Yeah, I’m not likely 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 unimaginable 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 at all times instructed to push by means of and so that you do, however having the ability to speak about these items and work out completely different methods to have the ability to bounce again just a little bit sooner –– I believe that has been simply the largest factor for me. So to have the ability to not let these issues hassle me as a lot, allow them to roll off like, the following one’s moving into, however actually consider it.”
- [32:00] – HOW SHE HANDLES NEGATIVE COMMENTS THAT HAVE COME WITH THE GROWTH OF WOMEN’S SPORTS
FUDD: “I like interacting with followers, once I see [negative] messages like that, these persons are hiding behind their screens, they couldn’t stay a day doing what I do and I’m absolutely conscious of that. So realizing that the folks 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 hassle 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. Bear in mind? I gotta use the folks round me. I’ve to make use of the cool folks round me…Effectively, I’m gonna get Alicia Keys on the pod. Clearly, [I am] gonna her once more –– my BFF, we’re besties. Barack Obama.”