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Hayward has the scoop

Lazar Hayward’s stint with USA Basketball’s World University Games team last summer was memorable for the senior forward in many ways.

He traveled overseas for the first time, ranked third on the team in scoring and rebounding—helping lead it to a bronze medal—and held his own with some of the best in college basketball.

As the team began training in Colorado Springs, Colo., there were a few with whom Hayward was familiar; West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler and Villanova’s Corey Fisher were fellow Big East brethren. But some others he was seeing up close for the first time.

Little did Hayward know that the advance look he was getting at Washington’s Quincy Pondexter would come in handy for both him and Marquette roughly nine months later, when they were announced as a first-round NCAA Tournament opponent for Pondexter’s Huskies.

“I think so,” said Hayward when asked whether he’d be able to help draw up some sort of game plan. “I can kind of tell those guys what he likes to do, some of his tendencies and stuff. I kind of got the sneak peek on him.”

Any help Hayward has provided about the fellow senior was undoubtedly welcomed by coach Buzz Williams and his staff since, to this point, very few opponents have had many answers for the 6-foot-6, 215-pounder.

Pondexter leads Washington (24-9) in scoring and rebounding at 19.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.

, figures that ranked him second and third in the Pac-10 Conference, respectively.

He’s posted three 30-plus-point games, including a 34-point outing in a win at Oregon on March 4, and also has 10 double-doubles. He threw in 10 boards in that win over the Ducks, a game in which he also hit 14 of 18 shots, including 2 of 3 three-pointers, to go along with six assists in 36 minutes.

They’re numbers that are strikingly similar to Hayward’s. Also standing 6-6 but weighing 10 pounds more and playing as an undersized power forward and center, he’s averaging 18.1 points and 7.7 rebounds per game to pace sixth-seeded MU (22-11) in both categories and rank sixth and seventh in the Big East, respectively.

Hayward has eight double-doubles as well.