The Dallas Wings selected Azzi Fudd with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft on Monday, making her the seventh UConn player to hear her name called first.

Fudd, a guard, will be joining Paige Bueckers – a former teammate with whom she won the NCAA championship in 2025 – with the Wings.

As the first draft selection under the new WNBA collective bargaining agreement, Fudd will earn $500,000 in her first season as the No. 1 pick.

The crowd at the Shed at Hudson Yards in New York erupted when WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert called Fudd’s name. The noise was the loudest from the front row, where Fudd’s UConn teammates were sitting.

Fudd and Englebert met on the stage, with the commissioner presenting her with a No. 1 navy blue Wings jersey, trimmed in bright green. Fudd then chatted with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, explaining to her what it meant to have her family and teammates there and what the Wings can expect from her.

“My family means everything to me,” Fudd said as her parents looked on. “They poured into me so much … Every single person in my family has done so much for me and it means everything that they're here with me today.”

Her parents, she said, were her “coaches on and off the court but they just showed me what it means to be a great player, great teammate and a great person every single day.”

Throughout the UConn season, which ended April 3 with a loss to South Carolina in the Final Four, Fudd talked about the closeness of the Huskies.

“The fact that every single one of them is here shows you just the chemistry and what they mean to me -- the support,” she said. “I plan on bringing that (to Dallas). Being a great teammate, doing everything I can, whatever the team needs.”

And she has the familiarity of playing with Bueckers.

“I'm excited to play again with Paige. I mean, she's an incredible person, incredible player and it's gonna be a lot of fun,” Fudd said.

Other Huskies taken No. 1 overall were Sue Bird (2002, Seattle Storm), Diana Taurasi (2004, Phoenix Mercury), Tina Charles (2010, Connecticut Sun), Maya Moore (2011, Minnesota Lynx), Breanna Stewart (2016, Storm) and Bueckers (2025, Wings).

No other school has more than two No. 1 overall draft picks in their histories.

Fudd and Bueckers are the second set of Huskies teammates to be selected in back-to-back years, after Charles and Moore.

Bueckers was a clear-cut No. 1 pick in 2025, but draft analysts were torn about who would go first in this one. But Monday, Fudd became the consensus top pick, largely based on how she would work in coach Jose Fernandez’s offense after the Wings took giant steps with their roster over the past few days.

Dallas signed forward Alanna Smith, one of the league’s top defenders in free agency and re-signed Arike Ogunbowale and Awak Kuier and added Jessica Shepard. 

From the Washington, D.C., metro area, Fudd was the No. 1-ranked recruit in the Class of 2021 and a McDonald’s All-American. Two years earlier, she was the first sophomore to be named the Gatorade National Player of the Year.

She leaves UConn with her name in the record books and a room full of trophies. Among her honors in 2026: WBCA All-America, AP First Team All-America, USBWA First Team All-America, Wooden Award All-America, Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year and All-Big East First Team.

In the UConn record books, Fudd is No. 5 in career three pointers made (292), No. 7 in career three-point percentage (42.2%), No. 1 in career free throw percentage (92.5%) and No. 4 in single-season 3-pointers made (117, 2025-26).

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