UConn senior Azzi Fudd remembers the first time she heard teammate Caroline Ducharme‘s name. As was typical during her middle school weekends, Fudd was on her way to an elite basketball tournament with her parents.
“We were in a car going to a tournament, and my parents were talking about, ‘Oh, there’s some really good girl who’s gonna be at this tournament named Caroline Ducharme from Massachusetts,'” Fudd told reporters on Saturday. “[I wondered] like, ‘[Is] she Black, is she white?’ Like, Caroline Ducharme — trying to picture what this girl is.”
When Fudd finally met the elusive Ducharme, the connection was immediate.
“We … talked at Blue Star [Basketball] Camp, and we were the same grade. I didn’t really have anyone my age I was friends with [because] I played up for so long,” Fudd said. “So we clicked immediately, and there’s pictures of us together, and we’re both, like, skinny and awkward-looking, but immediately we clicked and we would text each other, whatever. We’d coordinate tournaments … [and] get lunch and hang out in the bleachers in between games. So just to know that that’s where we started, that’s where we’re coming from to now, is incredible.”
On Sunday, as fifth-year seniors, the teammates and best friends were honored on senior day at Gampel Pavilion.
A rocky journey
After meeting in middle school, Fudd and Ducharme stayed connected throughout high school, eventually committing to UConn as the No. 1 and No. 5 overall recruits, respectively, in the class of 2021. They were poised to join a talented UConn team highlighted by 2020’s top recruit, Paige Bueckers.
Fudd and Ducharme started off strong in Storrs, both earning BIG EAST All-Freshman team honors and starting over 10 games apiece. Both were key contributors to UConn’s season that ended with a run to the 2022 national championship game.
The season wasn’t all roses for the duo, however. Ducharme missed four games with a head injury. Fudd missed 11 games due to a lingering right foot injury and was limited to 17 minutes and 3 points in the national title game while dealing with a stomach illness. Those adversities were signs of things to come.
As a sophomore, Ducharme was sidelined for 13 games with a concussion after running into a screen in practice. Four games into the following season, severe turbulence on a team flight exacerbated her head and neck issues. She was shut down for the season.
Meanwhile, Fudd suffered a knee injury as a sophomore during a December contest against Notre Dame. Although she eventually returned, she missed 22 games across the season. In the first month of her junior season, she tore her ACL, forcing her to redshirt the remainder of the season.
“I don’t think I would have been able to get through this without [Azzi],” Ducharme told reporters on Saturday. “And I think she appreciates my support, I hope. But I think it’s special to have somebody … [that] you can always count on through the hard times.”
Azzi’s ascent
After a year of ACL recovery, Fudd returned to the court for the 2024-25 season during an early-season game against FDU, on the same night head coach Geno Auriemma became the winningest coach in college basketball history. As the season progressed, she began to find her legs again, joining Bueckers and freshman Sarah Strong to form the three-headed monster that led UConn to the 2025 national title.
Ascending toward the promise and potential she brought to UConn, Fudd appeared in 34 games with 30 starts, averaging 13.6 points per game on a team-high 43.6% shooting from 3-point range. Fudd leveled up in the NCAA Tournament, averaging 17.5 points per game. She scored 24 points and added five rebounds and three steals in the national championship game against South Carolina en route to Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors.
During that title run, Fudd announced her decision to return to UConn for her fifth and final season. Her decision to return was in part to her coach’s insistence that there were more chapters to be written in her UConn legacy.
“I know she wanted to come back for one more year because if you ask everybody around the country, ‘Hey, Azzi Fudd,’ they go, ‘Yeah, that’s the kid that used to be a really good shooter. She used to play at UConn,'” Auriemma told reporters on Saturday. “… [Then] they saw her then all of a sudden at the end of last season and now [the question became], ‘Can she hold up for an entire season and do what she did for an entire season?’ And for the most part, I think they’ve seen that.”
It’s true that Fudd could have chosen to enter the WNBA last season, leaving behind a complicated UConn career marred by the lows of devastating injury and the high of a national championship. A player with a tenuous injury history, Fudd could have decided that joining the WNBA early was the best way to maximize her pro career.
Her decision to stay, though, has elevated her national profile. Fudd is putting together an All-American season, averaging career highs in scoring, assists and rebounds. In UConn’s win over Tennessee on Feb. 1, Fudd cracked the top 10 in the UConn record book for career 3-point field goals made (242). Last week, she was selected to the 30-player late-season team for 2026 Naismith Player of the Year honors, and some analysts currently project her to be the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft.
Asked if it was worth it to use her final season of eligibility in Storrs, Fudd was resolute in her response.
“One hundred percent worth it,” Fudd said. “I definitely made the right decision, and this year has been, honestly, the most fun I’ve had. … From every perspective, point of view … [and] area of my life, I’ve grown a lot. I’ve had so much fun, and I would do it again.”
Team mom
Ducharme’s return to the court has been a bit less linear than Fudd’s. Due to the complexity of managing head and neck injuries, she missed 63 games — more than she’d played in her entire Husky career — before returning last season. She returned on Feb. 22, 2025, a year to the day before she played her final regular-season home game on Sunday. She ultimately appeared in nine games last season, including the national semifinal against UCLA and the championship game against South Carolina.
“I don’t know that we’ve been in a situation where someone went from freshman year having a role that was OK in the beginning, and then becoming the biggest role on the team because of circumstances, and then having it all kind of go away so quickly and and then kind of drip for the next three years,” Auriemma said.
Ducharme still struggles with managing her head and neck injuries. On senior day, she played in her 16th game of the season but her first since a Jan. 24 matchup at Seton Hall. Returning to contact sports following her injuries is a feat in itself, but Ducharme was driven by her love of the game.
“Before I got hurt, I was that kid that just always had a ball with me,” Ducharme said. “I loved basketball — I loved watching it, I loved just being around it. And so when this was taken away from me, the thought of not coming back was definitely really scary just because it felt like so much of my identity. …
“But coming back … tested how much you really love it. And throughout the whole process, like once I started coming back, I absolutely never turned back. … You want to just keep going, keep going, keep going. And I think that’s kind of always been my love for basketball.”
Off the court, Ducharme has earned the title of “team mom,” always caring for and guiding her teammates, especially the younger ones. She calls her room a “revolving door” and has spent countless hours listening to, cooking for, laughing with and mentoring her teammates. Her resilience and commitment to the team have inspired everyone associated with the UConn program.
“I think the players have rallied around Carol because they see what she’s gone through, what it’s taken to get back this far, and I think she sees what this is and how much she appreciates having an opportunity to be part of all this,” Auriemma said. “And I think that’s made her better, and it’s made us better.”
Here and now
Ducharme doesn’t know what her next steps will be when she leaves UConn, and if or how basketball will fit into her life. One role she’s certain to maintain, even from a distance, is reliable leader.
“I’m definitely going to miss being [the team] mom,” Ducharme said. “I think that’s probably going to be one of the things I miss most, because it was just so unexpected. … I really do love having that role for all of them, and so that is definitely going to be something that I miss the most. But it doesn’t change — I’m always going to be a call away.”
As for Fudd, she hopes to play basketball “as long as possible” and is approaching the other parts of her life with curiosity. Already a businesswoman in her own right, she looks up to fellow businesswomen and UConn alums Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. She’s not looking too far ahead, though; she’s enjoying her remaining time with teammates and keeping her eyes on the prize — a second national championship.
When asked what advice she’d have for her younger self, the 23-year-old got reflective, perhaps recalling the long afternoons sitting on the bleachers with her friend Ducharme.
“Keep enjoying it. Have fun. Enjoy. For me, the highlights have been my teammates, the relationships and bonds I’ve built,” Fudd said. “So … enjoy all those little moments, those road trips, AAU tournaments all the way to college now … just embrace all of it.”