Azzi Fudd is ridiculous, too | The Boneyard

Azzi Fudd is ridiculous, too

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Today, she got a steal, dribbled behind her back, drove the length of the floor, and made a layup while getting fouled. Of course, she made the free throw.
On that FT. Azzi is currently shooting 100% from the foul line this year, having made all 17 of her FT’s. I checked to see if anyone had shot and made all of their free throws in a season, setting a minimum of at least 50 taken. While a few MBB players have accomplished that feat, no woman has ever done so. EDD hit 58/59 in a season. But perfection has never been achieved.

DISCLAIMER: I fully accept any and all responsibility for jinxing Azzi on the FT line…..
 
Today, she got a steal, dribbled behind her back, drove the length of the floor, and made a layup while getting fouled. Of course, she made the free throw.
About that behind the back dribble, I was struck by it too. Tons of kids can do that casually. But to use it effectively in game conditions with a defender in your face is decidedly different. And controlling the ball tightly on the other side is not easy.

Azzi kept the ball close throughout, and used it to blow past a defender who’d gotten too close. Paige also does such things regularly, especially in the open court in transition breaks. But even she doesn’t control it as tightly as Azzi has been doing of late. I think this is one more example of how she’s raising her game to a new level.
 
On that FT. Azzi is currently shooting 100% from the foul line this year, having made all 17 of her FT’s. I checked to see if anyone had shot and made all of their free throws in a season, setting a minimum of at least 50 taken. While a few MBB players have accomplished that feat, no woman has ever done so. EDD hit 58/59 in a season. But perfection has never been achieved.

DISCLAIMER: I fully accept any and all responsibility for jinxing Azzi on the FT line…..

EDD has a highly unorthodox form, but she may be the only FT shooter as good as Azzi.
 
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And yet I get the feeling that she still hasn't achieved the level of national recognition that Paige or Clark enjoyed. She might even be second in recognition to Sarah. That could be the problem, i.e. there's always been someone else.
 
And yet I get the feeling that she still hasn't achieved the level of national recognition that Paige or Clark enjoyed. She might even be second in recognition to Sarah. That could be the problem, i.e. there's always been someone else.
Paige and Clark are very business like in their interviews. When Azzi gets in front of a camera, that beaming smile comes out, capturing her audience. Predict that based on her personality AND skills that she will become one of the most well know women's basketball players in the pros.
 
And yet I get the feeling that she still hasn't achieved the level of national recognition that Paige or Clark enjoyed. She might even be second in recognition to Sarah. That could be the problem, i.e. there's always been someone else.
I hear you, and maybe Azzi herself does too, sort of. I didn’t really follow her high school years, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that something similar happened then as well. She may be the perfect partner, doing brilliant things as much as any superstar, but somehow always attracting another superstar and allowing them to shine brightly next to her. Sort of like the Sith in Star Wars: “there’s always two.” It also suggests why UConn is the perfect destination for her, the Mecca of selfless team play. It’s difficult now to imagine her playing at any other school for this reason. Every time she makes that extra pass to get a teammate an even more open shot underlines this.

One other thought that presents itself concerns the leadership debate that heated up the BY a couple months back. Looking at the team now, at the end of the OOC schedule, the real leaders, Azzi and Sarah, are decidedly quiet and more comfortable letting their actions speak for them. KK does all the loud things and is enabled to do it better by their forebearance. Compare that to Nika’s junior season, with Paige and Azzi sidelined, she stepped up and assumed a very loud role. KK doesn’t need to be as loud as Nika because she can rely on Azzi and Sarah. Next season, the situation could be reproduced for KK with Sarah and Blanca.
 
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The problem has been her injuries. When she's healthy, she's a beast.
I think of it more like an active volcano. It's only a matter of time until it blows. Was it Tennessee, freshman year, when she blew the top off that game? Every coach in the NCAA is working tirelessly to get her 25 shots a game. She's going to shoot minimum 50%, with 5 threes, so she's averaging 30 points a game everywhere in the NCAA. She got 7 shots in the Butler game.
I'm not complaining. I am mesmerized by the team play at UConn. I'm just saying.
 
Azzi Fudd is in many ways a Unicorn! Azzi Fudd, I believe is the only HS Sophomore to win Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2019. She won this national award three months prior to her first ACL tear. She's that nice! PB won her GNPY as a Senior in 2020.
 
Azzi Fudd is in many ways a Unicorn! Azzi Fudd, I believe is the only HS Sophomore to win Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2019. She won this national award three months prior to her first ACL tear. She's that nice! PB won her GNPY as a Senior in 2020.

My local girl split 2 of the 4 major HS NPOY awards after her sophomore year. Haley Jones won the other 2. Her team lost the GEICO National Championship game, because Azzi played with a bad ankle. Her shots were consistently short.
 
The most ridiculous thing about Azzi, and there is a lot, is that she has missed ONLY 8 foul shots in her entire career. 8.
For those counting at home, that would be 101/109 (91.7%) along with FG 473/1010 (47.4%), 3FG 265/609 (43.6%). This year, her assists to turnovers is 2.0 with a career 1.45. Geno was right to tell Azzi that no one has been able to truly see what she could do on the court and that she should prove to herself and everyone else (except for Milford!) what she could really do when healthy.
 
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For those counting at home, that would be 101/109 (91.7%) along with FG 473/1010 (47.4%), 3FG 265/609 (43.6%). This year, her assists to turnovers is 2.0 with a career 1.45. Geno was right to tell Azzi that no one has been able to truly see what she could do on the court and that she should prove to herself and everyone else (except for Milford!) what she could really do when healthy.
Many believed in Azzi. That 6 game stretch when she torched several top teams and nearly matched Clark - in which she probably still wasn't fully healthy and she had Vic Schaeffer amazed how she torched his defense in the manner she did. After her injury that year she came back and was a shell of her former self. That's also hurt her stats.
 

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