Starting Five: Azzi Fudd opens up about illness in 2022 national title game

Azzi Fudd doesn’t remember much from her first trip to the Final Four in 2022. As a freshman, she struggled to deal with nerves from playing on the sport’s biggest stage — which just further compounded already-existing issues.

“The entirety of my freshman year, I didn't play the way I wanted to,” she said. “I felt like I was a shell of myself.”

As a result, Fudd’s memory of Minneapolis is foggy. Even though UConn took down Stanford in the national semifinal — its first Final Four win in six years at the time — all of it was the blur to the freshman.

“That was such a huge moment and I don't remember much of it,” Fudd said. “I was just so nervous.”

The Huskies went on to lose in the national championship for the first time ever as they were no match for South Carolina. Yet aside from the final result, Fudd has no desire to remember that day.

The night before the title game, she came down with a nasty illness.

“We went to dinner the night before the championship game and I don't know what it was. I was the only one who got it,” she said. “I was up all night throwing up. It was awful.”

Fudd couldn’t make it to shoot-around and had to get IV fluids before the game, though that led to its own set of problems.

“The doctor tried to put an IV in me. They used like every needle we had because they couldn't find a vein since I was so dehydrated,” she explained. “I hate needles, so that was traumatic.”

Given the lack of sleep and the fact that she had nothing in her stomach, Fudd was exhausted before the game even began. She played 16 minutes but only totaled three points. There wasn’t much she could do.

“I was already nervous, already worried about how I was gonna play,” Fudd said. “Then I was so tired, I felt like I was pulling a truck.”

While she doesn’t know exactly what it was, she has a theory: Food poisoning from some bad Brussels sprouts.

“I'm not gonna have Brussels sprouts tonight because I had a Brussels sprout come out of my nose,” she explained.

With Fudd down due to the illness — combined with season-ending injuries to Aubrey Griffin (back) and Dorka Juhász (wrist) and a less-than-100 percent Paige Bueckers (knee) — UConn never stood a chance.

“Before we went into the locker room, I said, ‘One of two things is going to happen tonight. We're either going to win a close game — maybe in double overtime, something like that because South Carolina doesn't play great — or we're going to get blown out,” Geno Auriemma said. “I was right. Five minutes into the game, we got blown out.”

Fudd intends on making better memories in the rematch on Sunday afternoon.

“I want to leave that [2022 title] game in the past and I want to do nothing the same,” she said. “I plan on enjoying tomorrow. I plan on having fun with my team. I plan on remembering it. It's gonna be a special day.”

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