UCI’s Max Hazzard and his teammates ready to challenge Kansas State Friday

UCI junior Max Hazzard was MVP of the Big West Tournament (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

UC Irvine junior guard Max Hazzard doesn’t seem at all intimidated about the Anteaters opening round game against No. 4 Kansas State Friday morning in the South Regional of the NCAA Tournament in San Jose.

“I love it, I love our match-up, I really do,” Hazzard said. “We played them last year and they beat us pretty handily (71-49) but we’re so much better now. I’m excited for it.”

The No. 13-seeded Anteaters hope to get a boost from local fans travelling from Orange County to San Jose to cheer them on.

“We’re going to get a lot of people to come out and hopefully feed off their energy,” he said.

Hazzard said he believes defense and rebounding will be the two keys on Friday.

“If we defend and rebound, we will give ourselves a chance to win,” he said.

Hazzard and his teammates have reason to be confident. They enter the program’s second NCAA Tournament appearance riding a school record 16-game winning streak and they bring a 30-5 record into the game, which starts at 11 a.m.

Hazzard, who is averaging 12.5 points and 2.2 assists a game, is coming off perhaps his most memorable night as an Anteater when he scored 23 points and had five assists in UCI’s 92-64 victory over Cal State Fullerton Saturday night in the championship game of the Big West Tournament at Honda Center, sending UCI to the Big Dance.

Hazzard drilled 8 of 11 field goals and made 5 of 6 3-pointers. He also scored 32 points and earlier this year made a Bren Center record 10 3-pointers against Denver.

Yet after the game and after he had been named tournament MVP, Hazzard, the true team player that he is, said winning the game was more important than getting the award.

“That was special; everyone was so focused,” he said of the game against Cal State Fullerton. “They beat us last year (in the finals) and it was pretty cool to beat them the way we did and that was special. We had a good time.”

Hazzard said the Anteaters had plenty of motivation for that game.

“When they won and they beat Santa Barbara (in the quarterfinals), we were so happy,” Hazzard said. “We didn’t think we’d win like that but we also talked about, ‘it doesn’t have to be a close game.’ I’m happy to beat them the way we did.”

It was one of the goals for the UCI players going into the season.

“The goal going in was to win the regular season championship, to win the Big West Tournament championship and to advance to the NCAA Tournament so we had a chance to do all three,” he said.

Hazzard played high school basketball at Loyola in Los Angeles and was recruited aggressively by UCI assistant coach Ryan Badrtalei.

“I wanted to stay local, they recruited me harder than anybody else and obviously it’s a world class education so I’m glad I came here,” said Hazzard, who was second team All-Big West this year.

Hazzard’s grandfather was the late Walt Hazzard, who was the national player of the year at UCLA under John Wooden and later coached the Bruins. He also played for five NBA teams, including the Lakers.

Walt Hazzard battled health issues right before Max Hazzard was born, but did his best to support his grand-son.

“He would come to all my games and say what he could and I appreciated that,” Max Hazzard said.

Hazzard said he and his teammates are appreciative of the support they’ve received and was excited about the support the team got at a preview get-together on campus Sunday.

“It’s still kind of a blur, it doesn’t seem real,” he said. “It was amazing to see everybody come out. My parents came back down, so that was special.”

-By Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com