“I’m not really sure I have words to describe that feeling what that meant,” Fudd said of getting drafted. “I don’t think it’s fully sunk in. It’s nothing I could have imagined. The feeling of sitting with my family, with Morgan (Valley), hearing your name called, go up there. Such a surreal feeling.”<\/p>\n
Fudd will pair again with former Huskies teammate Paige Bueckers<\/a>, who was the Wings’ top pick last year. Bueckers — who along with Fudd gave UConn a record seven No. 1 selections — was in attendance at the draft along with Fudd’s Huskies teammates.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n “Paige is an incredible player, everyone knows that,” Fudd said. “She’s someone that makes playing basketball with easy.”<\/p>\n UCLA<\/a> stars Lauren Betts<\/a> and Gabriela Jaquez<\/a> went in the top five, a little over a week after leading the Bruins to their first NCAA championship.<\/p>\n Their teammate, Kiki Rice<\/a>, went sixth to Toronto<\/a>, the first pick for the expansion franchise. The Tempo chose to have the higher pick in the college draft after winning a coin toss, giving the Portland Fire<\/a> the top choice in the expansion draft earlier this month.<\/p>\n UCLA broke UConn’s record of having four players drafted in the first round, a mark the Huskies set in 2002, when Angela Dugali\u0107<\/a> went ninth to Washington<\/a> — teaming her again with Betts — and Gianna Kneepkens<\/a> was chosen by Connecticut<\/a> with the last pick of the opening round.<\/p>\n With Charlisse Leger-Walker<\/a>‘s selection in the second round at No. 18 by the Sun, the Bruins also broke a record shared by Tennessee<\/a> (1997, 2008), Notre Dame<\/a> (2019) and South Carolina<\/a> (2023), who all had five players drafted in total.<\/p>\n The new collective bargaining agreement that was ratified last month gave huge pay raises to rookies. Fudd will make nearly seven times what Bueckers earned last season as the top choice. The No. 2 and No. 3 picks will get $466,913 and $436,016, respectively.<\/p>\n Azzi Fudd Player Profile \u2022 2026 First-Team AP All-American, 2025 national champion, 2-time First-Team All-Big East; been at UConn her entire career (5 seasons) — ESPN Research<\/p>\n Second- and third-round picks will make $270,000 — which is more than the previous maximum salary in the old CBA.<\/p>\n “I’m just blessed and grateful to come at this time,” said No. 8 pick Flau’jae Johnson<\/a>, who went to Golden State<\/a> before being traded to Seattle<\/a>. “The 30th season [of the WNBA]. My goal is to leave it better than I found it. It’s a gratitude thing, but also a responsibility thing. I’m taking that with full force.”<\/p>\n Minnesota<\/a> took Olivia Miles<\/a> of TCU<\/a> with the No. 2 pick. Miles decided to stay in college last season instead of enter the WNBA draft. She transferred from Notre Dame to the Horned Frogs. She helped the team reach the Elite Eight for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n “Deep breath that’s why I got emotional,” Miles said of finishing her journey. “It’s finally here, finally heard my name. This is what this was for.”<\/p>\n After Seattle took Spain center Awa Fam Thiam at No. 3, Washington selected the 6-foot-7 Betts before the Chicago Sky<\/a> followed with Jaquez, who is the sister of Miami Heat<\/a> player Jaime Jaquez Jr.<\/a> She now has family bragging rights not only with a national championship, but also was picked higher than him. Jaime was taken 18th in the NBA draft in 2023.<\/p>\n Portland took Spanish guard Iyana Mart\u00edn Carri\u00f3n with its first-ever pick. Indiana<\/a> took South Carolina’s Raven Johnson<\/a> with the 10th pick and Washington drafted Cotie McMahon<\/a> of Ole Miss<\/a> next.<\/p>\n Connecticut took French player Nell Angloma with the 12th pick. A second Gamecock went next with Madina Okot<\/a> drafted by Atlanta<\/a>. Seattle drafted Duke<\/a>‘s Taina Mair<\/a> with the 14th choice.<\/p>\n The Sun closed out the first round choosing Kneepkens. They later traded third-round pick Serah Williams to the Fire in exchange for Taylor Bigby and a future 2027 third round pick, sources told ESPN.<\/p>\n The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apr 13, 2026, 07:24 PM ET NEW YORK — Azzi Fudd is on her way to Dallas as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-248819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/r1643099_600x400_3-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Averaged career highs in PPG (17.3), FG pct (48%), 3-pt FG pct (45%) and APG (3.1) in 2025-26
\u2022 117 3-pt FG made in 2025-26, 4th most in UConn history; 196 3-pt FG made in past 2 seasons, most in Division I over that span
\u2022 1 of 5 players in D-I this season to shoot at least 60% at the rim\/in the paint, 40% in the midrange and 40% from 3-point
\u2022 Missed 11 games her freshman year with a foot injury; missed 22 games sophomore season with knee injury; missed all but 2 games in 2023-24 with torn ACL<\/p>\nUnder the new collective bargaining agreement that was ratified last month, Azzi Fudd will make $500,000 — nearly seven times what Paige Bueckers earned last season as the top choice in the 2025 WNBA draft.\u00a0Pamela Smith\/AP<\/p>\n