SYRACUSE — Buddy Hield, Oklahoma’s star guard, recalled he was home in Freeport, Bahamas, when he heard the news.
“I was so scared,’’ Hield said.
It was a natural reaction, as all Hield immediately knew was his teammate and backcourt mate, Isaiah Cousins, had been shot. In a situation like this, the devil is in the details, and it took some time before Hield learned Cousins was going to be fine.
“You walk in the streets of New York,’’ Hield said. “Isaiah was being so good, he’s not a troublemaker, nothing like that. I feel like he came to Oklahoma to get away from that city life. He was being so good, and he goes back, and unfortunately it happens to him.
“Everyone was saying, ‘Isaiah is messing around with gangs,’ which he is not. That’s where he lives, he has to go home, and the bullet caught him.’’
The bullet caught him behind the left shoulder last May 27, with Cousins enduring the harsh lesson of what “wrong place, wrong time’’ can truly mean. Ten months later, the bullet remains lodged inside Cousins as he takes his place in the starting lineup Friday night for Oklahoma, as the No. 3-seed Sooners (24-10) face No. 7 Michigan State (25-11) in an East Region semifinal game inside the Carrier Dome.
“Just got to appreciate everything that’s going on in life,’’ Cousins told The Post Thursday. “Just love doing what you do. It helped me focus on basketball more.’’
Oklahoma got here by grinding through NCAA Tournament victories over Albany (69-60) and Dayton (72-66) last week in Columbus, Ohio. If there was a big jumper in the opener against Albany, Cousins made it, as the Sooners’ lead was trimmed to six points with 3:20 remaining and the Great Danes one defensive stop away from legitimate upset rumblings. With the shot clock nearly expired, Cousins, well-covered, contested and not having a strong offensive game, let fly with one of his line-drive 3-pointers.
Senior forward TaShawn Thomas said seeing Cousins take that shot “shocked me.’’ But he made it, and that was that.
“I mean it was just a normal 3,’’ Cousins said. “I was shooting it very aggressive in that game. It wasn’t falling and I felt that one was going to fall in. And there was four seconds left so I had no choice but to shoot it.’’
“Shot’’ took on a different meaning for Cousins last May, when he was back home in Mount Vernon, hanging out near Levister Towers when he heard shots ring out. He started to run away when one of his friends noticed blood coming from Cousins’ left shoulder. He went to Jacobi Medical Center in The Bronx for treatment, and doctors decided not to remove the bullet.
“I mean, I think the doctors know what they’re doing, but I thought they were going to take it out,’’ Cousins said. “But they said no.
“I wasn’t really frightened. It just happened, I was just in the moment. When I got to the hospital, I was just glad I was still able to walk.”
Police on the scene corroborated Cousins’ account of the event, that he and his buddies were a few blocks away from the shooting, sparked by rival street gangs, the “Goonies’’ and the “Gunnas,’’ when he was struck by an errant shot. Looking back, Cousins says the incident left him with a lesson learned.
“I was staying around for too long,’’ he said. “I could have left the area I was at.’’
Cousins, a 6-foot-4 guard who averages 11.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and has greatly improved his long-range shooting (45 percent from 3-point range) has achieved something highly unusual for anyone in a basketball program, as two years in a row he was named Oklahoma’s Most Improved Player. Along with Hield — the Big 12 Player of the Year — the Sooners have one of the top backcourts still standing in the tournament, and Cousins has established himself as a fixture in the lineup, starting 67 consecutive games.
He’s also brought New York flair to Norman, Okla.
“He just has that whole New Yorker, tough guy. You get to know him he’s kind of like just a nice guy,’’ said Khadeem Lattin, a freshman forward. “But if you wouldn’t know him you’d think he’s always in attack mode and always trying to come at your neck.’’