Through two devastating knee injuries, Azzi Fudd found herself battling more than just physical pain. The UConn guard descended into an emotional darkness that threatened to derail everything she’d worked toward, questioning whether basketball was still her calling. What pulled her from that low point wasn’t another surgery or rehab session, but an old devotional book and a teammate who refused to let her suffer alone.
How Did Paige Bueckers and Faith Transform Azzi Fudd’s Recovery?
Bueckers stepped in during Fudd’s darkest moment by offering her one of her old devotionals. Both players had been attending Athletes in Action, UConn’s on-campus student-athlete ministry, since Fudd’s sophomore year.
Fudd watched how faith transformed both Bueckers and Ice Brady, who carried themselves with a lightness that seemed to shield them from the weight of their own injury struggles. The difference was obvious, but Fudd couldn’t figure out how to find that same peace for herself.
“At first, it was like, ‘I want that,'” Fudd explained. “But I was then comparing what I was doing to them, and I was trying to force it too much.”
The second injury made everything harder. “And then when I got hurt again, it was really hard,” she told CT Insider. “Not that I hit rock bottom, but I was at a low point.”
2 Torn ACLs
1 Torn MCL
1 high knee sprain
1 foot injury
46% of her games in college missed due to injuries.First healthy season and she’s an NCAA champion and MOP. Azzi Fudd deserves it all. 🥹 pic.twitter.com/qIploze4im
— 𝔍𝔞𝔩𝔢𝔫🛸 (@StephGotGame_) April 10, 2025
Looking back, Fudd realized she hadn’t been putting in the necessary work to develop her faith. She was going through the motions without true commitment.
“I would go to church with Paige and Ice, but I wasn’t like giving it that extra,” she noted. “Like in basketball, you can go to workouts, but you’re not going to get better if you don’t put any extra work in yourself.”
Her approach was too passive, treating faith like a spectator sport. “So, that’s what it was with my relationship with God,” Fudd said. “I wasn’t doing anything extra. I wasn’t praying on my own. I wasn’t doing any Bible study on my own.”
What Changed When Fudd Finally Opened That Devotional?
Everything shifted the moment Fudd opened Bueckers’ devotional and began praying on her own. She started believing in her faith, releasing the tensions that had consumed her, and leaning on her teammates’ encouragement in a completely different way.
Class conflicts kept Fudd from attending Athletes in Action’s weekly meetings, but her teammates bridged that gap by bringing back material from the group Bible studies. The Huskies eventually formed their own team Bible study, which Fudd described as “incredible.”
“Just being able to, like, really understand, you know, I’m not doing this alone,” she shared. “I’ve never felt that way, because I’ve always leaned so much on my family and my teammates, but to have God in my life and be able to lean on Him and give Him those things that I feel like I can’t do on my own, and just know that He’s always there supporting me; I feel like that was a huge part of this year.”
The transformation showed up immediately on the court during the 2024-25 season. Fudd’s confidence returned along with her shooting touch, averaging 13.6 points, two rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game. Her shooting numbers told the story of a player who’d found her rhythm again, connecting on 47.4% from the field and an outstanding 43.6% from three-point range.
