Azzi Fudd discusses her upcoming season and her subsequent undertaking on dwell taping of “Good Recreation with Sarah Spain” at WNBA All-Star Weekend.
This week, we share a particular episode of “Good Recreation with Sarah Spain”, produced by iHeartPodcasts, that includes an interview with UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd.
This episode was recorded dwell on the first-ever “Jam Classes” in-person podcast occasion hosted by iHeart Girls’s Sports activities and Ensemble on Friday, July 18, 2025, in the course of the girls’s basketball All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis.
In at the 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 buddies (together with Paige Bueckers) to assist lock in company for her new iHeartPodcast, “Fudd Round and Discover Out”.
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
iHeartWomen’s Sports activities Jam Classes 2025 at Bullseye Occasion Heart
- [13:40] – ON HEAD COACH GENO AURIEMMA
SPAIN: “How lengthy did Coach Geno Auriemma will let you have a good time 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 all the time advised us, whenever you win a nationwide championship, you’re going to see a special facet of them. And that’s sort of what it was…We might work out after we wished to, we might go carry collectively, and you then 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 positively say that he has gotten a bit of nicer over time. They inform horror follow 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 received all of it, there was a lot stress already on the crew. And there was quite a lot of dialog specifically about making an attempt 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 overtly?…”
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 objective. All of us wished to win, clearly, however then it was additionally that we wished 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 crew that we wish to do every part for one another. And so we wished to win, however 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’ve any thought proper after you received to love, ooh, ought to I simply go away proper now on prime? Was there any a part of you that was like, oh gosh, now I gotta return and check out once more?”
FUDD: “No, actually, it made me extra excited to come back 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 crew is tremendous particular within the sense that everybody is tremendous motivated by themselves. I imply, it’s important to have that simply to be at UConn, however simply in our summer season exercises, you can inform. Yeah, we received 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 crew goes to appear to be… So I believe we’ve got a very 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 previous. 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, however 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 12 months 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 courtroom. Get to know what my day after day appears to be like like. Some stuff about my household, my teammates, we’ll have completely different folks on, it’s gonna be enjoyable and light-weight. I hope folks take pleasure in listening to it.”
- [26:15] – AZZI SAYS PAIGE WAS THE ORIGIN OF HER “PEOPLE’S PRINCESS” NICKNAME
SPAIN: “Nicely, you have already got an organization identify, proper? The Folks’s Princess, proper? We may trademark that. What’s the origin of that nickname?”
FUDD: “I truly 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 someway that morphed into folks calling me the ‘folks’s princess.’ Yeah, I’m probably not certain. 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 unbelievable assist 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 12 months for me. As an athlete, you’re all the time advised to push via and so that you do, however having the ability to discuss these items and work out completely different methods to have the ability to bounce again a bit of 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 subsequent one’s getting in, however actually imagine it.”
- [32:00] – HOW SHE HANDLES NEGATIVE COMMENTS THAT HAVE COME WITH THE GROWTH OF WOMEN’S SPORTS
FUDD: “I really like interacting with followers, once I see [negative] messages like that, these individuals are hiding behind their screens, they couldn’t dwell a day doing what I do and I’m totally 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 certain. Bear in mind? I gotta use the folks round me. I’ve to make use of the cool folks round me…Nicely, I’m gonna get Alicia Keys on the pod. Clearly, [I am] gonna her once more –– my BFF, we’re besties. Barack Obama.”
