UConn women’s basketball fans claim Azzi Fudd’s mom Katie in Big East Legends celebration

The crowd at the Big East Tournament was overwhelmingly filled with UConn women’s basketball fans, but when Katie Fudd was announced as Georgetown’s Big East Legend during halftime of the Huskies’ game Saturday, the fans at Mohegan Sun Arena roared as though she was one of their own.

And in a way, she is.

Katie played for Georgetown from 1998-2001, but she wasn’t rooting for her Hoyas when they faced the No. 1 Huskies in the conference quarterfinals. As she is on every UConn game day, she was decked out in No. 35 gear supporting her daughter, Huskies superstar Azzi Fudd.

The section of UConn family members chanted, “Katie, Katie,” as she crossed the court to accept her award, and All-American sophomore Sarah Strong’s mother Allison Feaster was the first one to high-five her as she returned to her seat in the stands.

“I know my mom played but like, that’s my mom, so to think of her as anything but that is insane,” Azzi said Friday ahead of the Huskies’s game against Georgetown. “I’m super proud of her, super excited for her and happy that she’s getting some of the flowers that she’s deserved and earned.”

Katie played her first collegiate season at NC State and was named the ACC Freshman of the Year in 1997 before transferring to Georgetown. She earned three All-Big East selections during her three years with the Hoyas, and she became the program’s first player ever selected in the WNBA Draft when she went to the Sacramento Monarchs in 2001 — though she never appeared in a professional game after injuries cut her career short.

Azzi understood growing up that Katie was once an elite player, but the first time she really saw her in action was on a recruiting visit to UConn. The coaching staff put together a highlight reel of Katie’s highlights playing against the Huskies for Azzi to help entice the No. 1 prospect in the 2021 class to follow in her mother’s footsteps in the Big East.

“I’d only seen a couple of clips from her playing days, so I loved seeing that,” Azzi said. “After she was telling me about her experience playing UConn. It wasn’t too many great memories, but even just how different the campus was. I was like, that’s crazy that you came up here.”

UConn coach Geno Auriemma coached against Katie at Georgetown five times, and though the Huskies had a perfect record in those meetings, he remembers Katie as “relentless competitor.” Though there are few similarities between Katie’s game and Azzi’s, Auriemma sees a similar passion for basketball in both mother and daughter.

“(Katie) was tough, hard nosed. Azzi’s a little bit different,” Auriemma said. “She has a different approach to the game, but maybe (has) the same competitiveness, for sure.”

UConn honored its own Big East Legend at halftime of Saturday’s game, recognizing Peggy Myers (formerly Walsh). Myers was the captain of Auriemma’s first team at UConn in 1985-86 and earned All-Big East honors as a senior that season. She finished her career as a Husky with 1,413 points, and her 937 career rebounds still rank top 10 in program history. She is also eighth in career double-doubles (28) and 10th in single-season rebounds (337) in the UConn’s record book.

Myers began serving as a program assistant at UConn in 1994-95, the year the Huskies won their first NCAA Championship, and she is currently in her 31st season in the role.

“I was fortunate to have her in my first year, because I knew how bad she wanted to win, and I knew how bad it had been for her and how much she wanted to end it on a high,” Auriemma said after the Huskies advanced to the Big East semifinals with an 84-39 win. “I think we did that, and now fast forward and her kids have graduated from UConn. She’s got grandkids … It’s nice to be able to be remembered, (because) not everybody gets a chance to be remembered.”

Sign up here to get UConn sports news straight to your inbox: UConn Alerts

Source Link