BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- If you want to know what UConn guard Azzi Fudd thinks about the Huskies' chances for next year, you might be disappointed.
"I'm personally done talking about 'next year'," Fudd told Julie Foudy during a panel at the ESPNW Summit on Thursday.
Instead, the 21-year-old is focused on the present. She and teammate Paige Bueckers will return to Connecticut next season as graduate students, but Fudd will not be making any promises or predictions for herself or the team in the 2024-25 season.
"Every year I've been at UConn, we've dealt with a whole lot of adversity. Like I said on the panel. It's not just me, it's the staff," Fudd, the No. 1 high school recruit in 2021, told CBS Sports. "It's my other teammates, even our mascot."
Yes, Jonathan XIV had surgery last January before making a return to his mascot duties ahead of the UConn men's NCAA championship run. As for Fudd, she suffered a season-ending non-contact injury in November after returning from a torn ACL and meniscus the prior November. Injuries have limited Fudd to only 40 games over her three years of eligibility.
"There's been so much adversity and every year it's all like, 'It's gonna get better, it's not going to keep happening to us,' and something always happens," Fudd said. "I hate the 'next year.' We're in this year, we're in the moment. I want to live in the moment. So, I don't want to do any talking about next year. I guess 'next year' is now this year. I don't want to speak about next year. I want to be present. I want to live in the moment."
Fudd pointed down to her bracelet that reads "unbreakable" and mentioned she has another beaded bracelet that reads "purpose." These serve as a reminder to Fudd that she's more than her injuries and the other adversities she faces as a player and person.
"I should be able to enjoy where I am -- be where my feet are," Fudd said. "One thing you learn with injuries is you can't take it for granted because the ball could stop rolling at any moment whether you want it to or not. You have no control."
These days, Fudd is enjoying the moment away from basketball. Fudd told CBS Sports she hasn't even touched a basketball this offseason. That's not to say she's not staying in basketball shape.
"It's been a lot more weight room focused," Fudd said. "Usually I'm in the gym every day, maybe one day a week I'm always touching the ball. [This offseason] I haven't, and I'm OK with that. I know when it's time, I'll be back. I'm hungry for it. It's not that I don't want to; I don't feel like I'm settling. But I just know when the time comes, I will be ready."
In short, Fudd isn't about the business of talking about the future. She's focused on being the best person and player she can be moment to moment. And the UConn star isn't placing any pressure on herself or her team ffor next season. Instead, she's focused on learning the lessons that adversity brings.
"I've become so much more grateful for the little things in life because the one thing that I put everything into, I don't have that right now," Fudd said. "So I'm going to take a step back and look at everything else that I do have.
"It's not about what I've lost. It's about what I still have and what I'm doing to get back to that point."
