{"id":604566,"date":"2026-04-15T00:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604566\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:44:14","slug":"what-to-know-about-azzi-fudd-wnba-no-1-draft-pick-set-to-join-gf-paige-bueckers-at-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604566\/","title":{"rendered":"What To Know About Azzi Fudd, WNBA No. 1 Draft Pick Set To Join GF Paige Bueckers At Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Azzi Fudd was selected by the Dallas Wings<\/a> as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft<\/a> on Monday night. A star player at the University of Connecticut, Fudd is the seventh player from the university to be picked No. 1 alongside Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart and Paige Bueckers, according to USA Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Azzi Fudd joins the Dallas Wings as the No. 1 overall pick<\/p>\n

Fudd expressed her disbelief after receiving the news of her selection.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not really sure I have words to describe that feeling,\u201d she said after her name was called, according to CBS Sports<\/a>. \u201cYeah, I\u2019m not sure. I mean, I don\u2019t think it was fully sunk in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fudd helped UConn win 54 straight games the last two seasons, including the 2025 national championship. She was named Most Outstanding Player and was a finalist for the Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy. Fudd averaged 14.7 points at UConn, according to USA Today. This season, she averaged 17.3 points and 3.1 assists per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest takeaway was how incredible my five years have been,\u201d Fudd said about her experience at UConn, per USA Today. \u201cBeing able to learn from that, being able to take all those experiences \u2014 the wins, the losses, the hard practices, the everything, the good, the bad \u2014 you can grow from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those habits, that championship, that winning mentality, I have to be able to bring those with me,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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Curt Miller, the Dallas Wings\u2019 general manager, highlighted Fudd\u2019s game and how she is expected to be a good addition to the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe skills on the court start with her offensive game and her elite shooting ability, her lightning-quick release, her movement when she\u2019s off the ball is truly, truly special,\u201d he said, according to CBS Sports. \u201cDefensively, she competes, she\u2019s intelligent, she\u2019s got great basketball IQ. And then the intangibles, which were ultimately the deciding factor for us, is she\u2019s a unifier in the locker room, a great teammate, and has all the characteristics that we\u2019re trying to accumulate in that locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Jose Fernandez said he immediately went to see Fudd play after being hired in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never wavered on what we needed. She was a right fit for this team,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was the right fit for the locker room, and she brings what this team needed in regards to spacing, her quick release or 3-point shooting, and she\u2019s coming from a program that is great in the locker room, and they know how to win, and that\u2019s what we want here in Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Azzi Fudd will be joining her former UConn teammate and now girlfriend Paige Bueckers at the Dallas Wings<\/p>\n

Paige Bueckers played with Fudd at UConn before being drafted by the Dallas Wings as the No. 1 overall pick in last year\u2019s draft. Last summer, Bueckers also confirmed that they were dating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to play again with Paige (Bueckers). I mean she\u2019s an incredible person, incredible player and it\u2019s gonna be a lot of fun,\u201d Fudd told ESPN via USA Today after being drafted.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows that she\u2019s someone that makes playing basketball with easy, and so I think just the prior experience knowing how to play with her, play off of her will only help going to this,\u201d she also noted.<\/p>\n

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Fudd said there are several things she is looking forward to as she kicks off her professional basketball career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I can\u2019t pinpoint one thing,\u201d she said, per USA Today. \u201cThere\u2019s endless opportunity in front of me, whatever happens next, wherever I end up. I\u2019m just excited to be in a new city, to learn from the players around me, to get to play with these incredible players, to learn from the coach. I\u2019m excited for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post What To Know About Azzi Fudd, WNBA No. 1 Draft Pick Set To Join GF Paige Bueckers At Wings<\/a> appeared first on Blavity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Azzi Fudd was selected by the Dallas Wings as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[28454,4657,49,48,3459,4658,82,8611,4786,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-604566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-azzi-fudd","9":"tag-breanna-stewart","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-dallas-wings","13":"tag-paige-bueckers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tina-charles","16":"tag-university-of-connecticut","17":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}