Why UConn women’s basketball is being ‘more intentional’ with Azzi Fudd, Sarah Strong as March nears

For the first 10 minutes of the UConn women’s basketball team’s victory over Georgetown on Thursday night, Azzi Fudd was completely unstoppable.

It was clear almost immediately that it was going to be one of those nights for the star guard after she knocked down a pair of 3-pointers over a 40-second stretch early in the first quarter. She added a third before the Hoyas could hit their second field goal of the game. The Huskies just kept feeding her, and Fudd kept connecting, scoring 13 of the team’s first 17 points.

But as soon as Fudd cooled off, UConn threw its second punch. All-American sophomore Sarah Strong came into the second quarter on a rampage, putting up 10 unanswered points by herself in less than three minutes after ending the first with just two.

At halftime, Fudd and Strong were outscoring Georgetown by themselves with 29 points to the Hoyas’ 25. The pair accounted for more than 60% of the Huskies’ attempted field goals in the first half, and they shot a combined 6-for-11 from 3-point range while the rest of the roster went 1-for-5.

“We have two great players,” Huskies coach Geno Auriemma said on his radio show last week. “I know everybody else thinks that everybody’s great on our team, but we have two great players that can do things that most normal players cannot do.”

The dominance from UConn’s superstars is by design as the regular season winds down. Auriemma wants the team to get comfortable running things through Fudd and Strong as much as possible, because when the stakes are the highest, he’s going to put the ball in their hands.

“Our team is smart enough to know that the more times that Azzi and Sarah touch the ball, obviously the better we’re going to be,” Auriemma said Thursday after the Huskies’ 84-52 win. “Towards the back end of the season here, we’ve been a little more intentional about where we’re going with the ball. What’s funny is as soon as you do that, it opens up so many different things for the rest of the players on the team.”

Fudd and Strong haven’t seen significant change in their minutes, but their usage rates have spiked over the last five games — though Strong’s jump is more marginal because of the illness she’s grappled with for several weeks. Fudd’s has gone from just over 26% on the season to almost 30% since Feb. 11, and Strong is up to 27.5% from 26.3% during the same span.

The numbers reflect a sentiment Auriemma reiterates constantly with the NCAA Tournament rapidly approaching: The Huskies aren’t going to get where they want to go in March unless Fudd and Strong can be the best versions of themselves game after game. UConn will almost certainly enter the postseason undefeated as the runaway favorite to bring home a second straight national championship, but the top tier of challengers look increasingly threatening against better competition late in conference play.

“I had a conversation with the whole team and told them, we need these two guys here to play great every night,” Auriemma said. “That can scare you, bring more pressure, but tough. That’s just the way it is. You have the privilege of having the opportunity to be told that … I think (Azzi) and Sarah have taken it to heart for the most part, because that’s who you are. That’s your that’s your lot in life right now. We need you to play great every night.”

Fudd is embracing the final weeks of her college career and her waning opportunities to make an impact in a UConn jersey. Her performance in her last PeoplesBank Arena game was a testament to that mentality: The star guard knocked down six shots from beyond the arc, her second-most in any matchup this season, to climb to No. 7 in program history in made 3-pointers and 26th in career points. She finished with 24 points for her fifth 20-point performance in the last eight games, also adding four steals and four assists without a single turnover.

“My mindset going into the game was just to be aggressive,” Fudd said. “In shootaround, all that came out of my mouth was, ‘Oh, it’s my last this, my last that, my last shootaround (in Hartford). So knowing that, I was like I just want to have fun. I want to enjoy this last game here with my teammates, be aggressive, read whatever the game is giving me, and my teammates were giving me great passes and setting great screens, so I just was doing what was open.”

Strong is also heading into her second postseason at UConn with a new level of comfort in her stardom, built off of the foundation of success she had as a freshman during last year’s run. Strong broke the NCAA Tournament record for points scored by a freshman that had stood since 1998, and she became the first player to log a double-double in the title game as a freshman. This time around, she’s prepared to be the leader the Huskies need both on the court and in the locker room.

“Knowing what to expect, it feels different from last year,” Strong said. “I didn’t really know anything about playing in March, in the postseason. So this year, I have a year under my belt so I’m able to help my teammates that haven’t been here before. (Having) the experience comes with confidence.”

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