Hooplandia 2024: UConn’s Azzi Fudd participates with fans in basketball clinic (photos)

WEST SPRINGFIELD — UConn women’s basketball player Azzi Fudd was a featured guest on Saturday at Hooplandia, alongside her mother and coach, Katie Fudd, as Katie conducted a basketball clinic for kids of all ages.

“Being somewhere like (Springfield), the birthplace of basketball is really cool,” Azzi said on Saturday. “You’ve got the (Naismith Basketball) Hall of Fame right here. Even the Big E is here later in the year, so I think this is just an amazing place to be.

“It’s a great environment and atmosphere for young ballers, especially to just see all the basketball around them (in Springfield), so I think it’s really inspiring and cool what Hooplandia is doing.”

Katie Fudd played Division-I basketball at North Carolina State University, where she won the ACC Rookie of the Year Award before transferring to Georgetown. During her time with the Bulldogs, she led the Big East in scoring twice, leading to her selection in the 2001 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystic.

“It’s really cool to bring in a different environment,” Katie Fudd said. “You don’t have a coach pulling you and yanking you because you’ve made a mistake, and you’ve got four to five other people on your team; everybody has got to play. You’re playing in a freer environment (in 3×3 basketball).”

After coaching the girls’ basketball team at The Potomac School (VA) for 11 years, Katie Fudd currently works alongside her husband and fellow coach, Tim Fudd, in operating GTS Fusion, a grassroots girls’ basketball program in the DMV Metro area. In the clinic, she stressed the importance of learning how kids can work on their fundamentals independently.

“Kids nowadays play a lot, we play a lot of 5×5, organized ball… but (they need to) understand that their skillset has to evolve,” Katie Fudd said. “You’re going into a team practice, and you want to work on a specific dribble move, or you want to work on your shot or offensive moves – teams are not designed for that.

“I tell my teams all the time, I want to bring in 10 great players, and then we make a great team, but I can’t do that unless we have kids doing what they need to do on their own… (if you) just spend 10 minutes a day on (a drill), that’s 52 hours in a year if you’re giving yourself a day off. Everybody has got that; no matter how busy you are, you’ve got 10 minutes.”

Katie detailed how she and her husband helped Azzi learn a specific skill and how something as simple as taking extra shots after practice can lay the foundation for further growth.

“That adds up over time, so you’re just constantly putting pennies in the bank,” Katie Fudd said. “Exposing (kids) to that (concept) and showing them that doing work on your own really isn’t awful. Some kids, because they’re so used to being in groups all the time, have a hard time going and doing something on their own.

“(I want) to give them that experience and show them things they can take home and work. Sometimes kids don’t know, like, ‘I want to work, but what do I do.’ Well, we just did 30 minutes of ball handling (drills) that you can take and do on your own… just giving them snippets of what they can go and do on their own and work on so when they do get on the court with their team, they’re evolved.”

Katie Fudd will host two more clinics at the Showcase Courts on Sunday. The UMass men’s basketball team and former NBA player Lou Roe are also scheduled to host their own clinics.