Podcast Summary: Fudd Around And Find Out

Episode: Ask Azzi Anything
Date: August 21, 2025
Hosts: Azzi Fudd & Ashanti Plummer

Episode Overview

This episode is a fan Q&A special where UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd and co-host Ashanti Plummer answer questions from listeners about life as a world-class college athlete, their personal lives, basketball stories, and more. From juggling a packed schedule to family stories, recruitment memories, and on-court mishaps, it’s a candid, humorous, and motivating peek behind the scenes.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Checking In: Life Balance & Being Present

• Busy Schedule: Azzi discusses her packed life, always traveling and balancing basketball, school, and family.
  • “You can sleep when you’re dead. Like, I’m not really worried about that.” (Azzi, 02:56)
• Advice for Others: Azzi and Ashanti stress the importance of staying present and appreciating moments with family, especially with such busy lives.
  • “Really being able to stay present and enjoy what you're doing in the moment.” (Azzi, 03:38)

2. Role Models

• Family Appreciation: Azzi emphasizes her parents' sacrifices as formative, now more deeply appreciated as she grows older.
  • “All the sacrifices that they've given for us, I'm just super grateful for. And I hope that I can be a parent like them one day.” (Azzi, 04:27)
• Ashanti also credits her mother’s strength as a single parent.

3. Travel Stories & Sleeping Anywhere

• Azzi prepares for a sudden trip to China, lamenting her lack of iPad for the lengthy flight.
• Both hosts reveal “hidden talents” for falling asleep anywhere (even gyms, movie theaters, or clubs).
  • “I would lay my jacket down and I'd sleep, like, in between the bleachers… in the middle of a tournament.” (Azzi, 06:33)
• Fun digression into weirdest sleeping spots, with Azzi noting she’s even fallen asleep in a club.

4. iPad Games, Books, and Harry Potter

• Azzi shares her love for old-school iPad games, including Smurf Village and Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery.
• Both hosts bond over Harry Potter fandom and take playful sides on which Hogwarts house they’d belong to.
• Azzi's recent and favorite reads:
  • The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo—“Made me cry.”
  • Pretty Girls (Karen Slaughter)—“That’s a crazy book.”
  • The Nightingale—"I was up at night, like, sobbing, reading this book. It like crushed my heart. But it was really good.” (Azzi, 11:15)

5. Advice to Young Athletes

• Importance of dreaming big, setting both short- and long-term goals, but embracing the non-linear journey.
  • “It’s not about the setbacks. It’s about how you overcome those things and how you respond…” (Azzi, 13:19)
• Ashanti underscores authenticity: “There is no one else, honestly, that you can be. And if you continue to just show up genuinely as yourself, your tribe will find you…”

Listener Questions & Live Interaction

6. Listener (Philip) Joins Live

• Workout Routine:

  • Azzi describes a typical week—on-court workouts 5-6 days, lifting after, focusing on quality over quantity.
    • “If you do an hour of good work, even 45 minutes of quality work, that's all you need.” (Azzi, 15:46)

• Philip’s Fitness:

  • Philip shares he’s “running, never stopping” and admits his pushups are “mediocre.” The hosts encourage him.

• Fans Naming Babies After Azzi?

  • “A baby being named after me is crazy because that's like a different level... this child is stuck with that name for at least 18 years…” (Azzi, 17:27)
  • Both hosts agree tattoos and names both represent wild levels of fandom.

All About Basketball

7. Recruiting Stories & College Choices

• Visits:
  • Family road-tripped to numerous college campuses.
  • Azzi shares funny/odd recruiting anecdotes: Sixth-grade scholarship offer at Maryland, memorable hospitality at Notre Dame, and UCLA's creative recruitment efforts.
    • “We were doing like a walk around the campus and they had someone on a golf cart stop me with… a magazine...“ (Azzi, 21:50)
  • Ashanti relays a school proposing with dessert that read “Will you marry us?”—and she said yes!

8. Favorite Team Memories

• Movie nights (notably watching The Purge), playful team bonding, and pranking teammates were standout moments beyond big wins.

9. Family Shenanigans

• Azzi’s dad regularly embarrasses/supports her at games—going wild for t-shirts at UConn, dancing on the Jumbotron, making her laugh from the stands.

10. Basketball Hypotheticals & Fun

• If you could change a rule: Both want a four-point shot, especially for deep threes.
• Signature Move:
  • Azzi: “In-n-out cross,” a staple from her high school days.
• Cartoon All-Stars:
  • Sully from Monsters, Inc (“He’d be a beast in the paint!” – Azzi, 29:54), plus Tom & Jerry as creative picks for unstoppable hoops characters.

11. Coaching, Embarrassment, and Honesty

• Azzi's dad once kicked her out of practice for asking to go pee: “He told me you should only be asking to go to the bathroom if you need to poop… if you need to pee, then you're not working hard enough.” (Azzi, 31:09)
• Azzi’s most embarrassing moment: Getting her period during a TV game—a relatable, real-life moment many female athletes face.

Ashanti’s Story: Basketball, Injuries, and Media

12. Ashanti’s Basketball Journey

• Grew up in New York City, played D1 at Texas A&M–Corpus Christi.
• Suffered various injuries, including a torn ACL (“left knee club” in solidarity with Azzi).
• Played pro basketball in Malta, Czech Republic, Germany, and most loved Australia—“the team felt really like family.”
• Chased once by a turkey-like animal in Australia (“Me and my therapist are locked in after that.” – Ashanti, 38:38)

13. From Player to Media

• Hurt again in Australia, decided to pivot to sports media to stay close to the game.
• “Why not host, why not tell stories, why not still be around it in ways that I don't necessarily have to play all the time…” (Ashanti, 39:17)
• "Playing will always be number one love," but hosting/broadcasting brings its own joys.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You can sleep when you're dead." (Azzi, 02:56)
• "The journey is never linear. It's never a straight line, the path. Like, it's never easy." (Azzi, 13:19)
• "If you continue to just show up genuinely as yourself… your tribe will find you." (Ashanti, 14:00)
• "My dad yelled at me… he kicked me out of the gym because I asked to go pee." (Azzi, 31:09)
• "Team felt really like family, and it's warm all the time. I lived in Brisbane." (Ashanti, 38:06)
• "But playing the game will always be the best feeling ever." (Ashanti, 39:59)

Important Timestamps

• 02:19 – Checking in on Azzi’s busy life
• 03:38 – Advice on balance and being present
• 04:27 – Non-basketball role models
• 05:24 – Travel and sleeping anywhere
• 08:45 – iPad games, Harry Potter, and favorite books
• 12:56 – Advice for young athletes
• 15:14 – Live listener, Philip, asks about Azzi’s workouts
• 17:07 – Naming kids/tattoos after athletes
• 21:41 – College recruiting anecdotes
• 26:37 – Favorite team memories
• 27:05 – Family shenanigans in the stands
• 28:02 – Fun basketball rule changes
• 29:54 – Cartoon characters as hoopers
• 31:09 – Most random thing to be yelled at by a coach
• 32:04 – Most embarrassing on-court moment
• 35:53 – Ashanti’s basketball journey Q&A

Tone & Style

The episode is lively, funny, honest, and motivational—Azzi and Ashanti keep things real, candidly sharing wins, awkward moments, and advice with genuine warmth and humor.

This engaging mailbag episode of Fudd Around And Find Out delivers heartfelt stories, unfiltered athlete experiences, and playful energy—perfect for fans and anyone curious about the real life behind college basketball stardom.