The UConn Huskies suffered a surprising loss to the No. 5 Michigan Wolverines 77-66 in only their second game of the season. Head coach Geno Auriemma wasn’t exactly pleased with his team, calling it the “worst UConn performance” in over 20 years. This simply isn’t normal for the Huskies, a program that didn’t lose a single game last season up until the Final Four. Something is missing this season, and three days after the loss, Geno Auriemma was reminded exactly what.
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On November 8, ahead of the Huskies’ top-10 matchup against Iowa, former UConn star Azzi Fudd was recognized at Gampel Pavilion, holding a bouquet of flowers after being inducted into the Huskies of Honor as its 25th member. Fudd’s visit took Auriemma back in time, as he recently reflected on the years the program spent with Fudd.
“It was like a reminder of how lucky we were and how good we had it,” Auriemma said of Fudd’s visit, per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou. “Sometimes we took it for granted.”
Arriving at UConn in 2021, Fudd featured in 115 games for the Huskies, averaging 14.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.7 steals per game. Fudd’s excellent shooting proficiency is what set her apart from the rest, as she ended her UConn career with a 46.9% field goal percentage, a 42.2% 3-point percentage (No. 7 in UConn history), a 92.5% free throw percentage (No. 1), and 292 career three-pointers made (No. 5).
“It’s crazy… It just feels very surreal. It feels very insane. I am incredibly grateful. And yeah, I mean, even just seeing that (2025) championship banner up there, my name up there, I still get goosebumps. I still get emotional looking at that and seeing my name up there. So, to see my name in Gampel, I don’t even know what I’m gonna feel,” Fudd said ahead of her ceremony.
The 2026-27 season is the first time in seven years that neither Azzi Fudd nor her partner-in-crime Paige Bueckers is with the program. Both alums, who helped UConn lift its first national championship in nine years in 2025, are now paving their way in the WNBA, arriving as consecutive No. 1 overall draft picks for the Dallas Wings.
Meanwhile, it’s safe to say nobody has yet touched the impact Bueckers had in Storrs in the modern era. She arrived as the No. 1 recruit in the 2020 class, above Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink. It took her little time to show why that was the case. She became the first-ever freshman to win the Naismith College Player of the Year after averaging 20 points and almost six assists in her debut season.
Chasing the national championship throughout her career, Bueckers finally saw her dream come true in her final season with the Huskies, where she averaged 19.9 points. She led the program to the title after beating Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks 82-59 in the final. After the game, Bueckers shared an emotional hug with Auriemma, which represented everything they had gone through together, good and bad.
“That was just everything we had been through at that point, just the emotions of it and everything coming together… The times when we hated each other, where we loved each other. Everything me and coach had been through was embodied in that hug,” Bueckers said in the Apple documentary The Dynasty: UConn Huskies.
Recently, the UConn coach also revealed how Bueckers still keeps in touch with him. “Just yesterday, I got a text from her. She said, ‘I miss you.’ She misses me everyday, except I miss her more,” Auriemma said, per UConn WBB Weekly’s Daniel Connolly.
With the talents Fudd and Bueckers possessed, even a prestigious program like the Huskies will take some time getting used to their absence. To their benefit, 10 players from last year’s team have returned for the 2026-27 season, headlined by reigning National Player of the Year Sarah Strong, as she has gradually taken on the leader role after Fudd and Bueckers’ departure.
The Huskies will always be a top team, but they are currently in a time crunch to perfect their new identity. According to ESPN, between now and January, the Huskies play nine top-25 and six top-10 opponents, including No. 1 South Carolina on November 24, No. 5 Duke on November 28, and No. 9 LSU on December 20. In the NCAA era, this would be the most top-25 and top-10 games for a program before the new year, considering all the rankings hold.
“Maybe just as it played out, we need more time. But we don’t have time because we’re playing teams that can beat us… We’ve got to find ourselves a little bit,” Auriemma said, per ESPN.