Jeremy Hazell never stopped running. The thought to slow down never crossed his mind.

It wasn’t as if he really had a choice, though. The Seton Hall star shooting guard was walking home in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood in the early morning hours of Dec. 26 when he was approached by four men who attempted to rob him. Resistant, Hazell didn’t allow it to happen.

‘I wouldn’t let them,’ Hazell said, ‘so I tried to run, and they started shooting.’

Hazell ran from the gunshots. The bullet that penetrated Hazell’s side didn’t even stop him. He just kept running until he saw an ambulance and flagged it down.

The thought of Hazell — Seton Hall’s leading scorer before the injury — returning to the court this season seemed bleak at first. Even more so considering the fact that the SHU (8-12, 2-6 Big East) senior was already rehabbing a broken bone in his left wrist, suffered in a game against Alabama on Nov. 19.

But a little more than two weeks after that fateful Sunday morning, Hazell was running again. Only this time, he was with his teammates during Seton Hall’s game at DePaul. Seventeen days after getting shot in the side, Hazell scored 23 points in a Pirates win against the Blue Demons, snapping a three-game losing streak in the process. And with that performance, Hazell achieved the most improbable of returns. The senior made a speedy recovery from the broken bone in his wrist — only six weeks — despite dealing with the gunshot wound as well.

Hazell missed 13 games between the Alabama and DePaul games, including a 61-56 loss to Syracuse (18-2, 5-2) on Jan. 8. But Hazell will be playing for SHU in its rematch against the Orange as the two teams square off at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Carrier Dome.

The senior has averaged 15.5 points per game in four games since returning to the court.

‘It feels great coming back, playing with the team,’ Hazell said. ‘I really miss playing with these guys, and they miss me.’

Prior to the doctor’s decision that cleared Hazell to play almost three weeks ago, the 24-year-old was considering a medical redshirt that would allow him to play for the Pirates next season. And there were plenty of incentives for Hazell to take the rest of this season off to prepare for next year.

Hazell would have had more time to heal from his broken wrist. He wouldn’t have to worry about getting back on the court too soon for a Pirates team mired at the bottom of the Big East standings. He could have come back next season to a team with a clean slate, as well as a clean slate for himself.

He also would have likely broken the Seton Hall all-time scoring record with another full season. He would have needed to score 633 points to do so next season, a total he surpassed in both his sophomore and junior years.

But Hazell decided to get back on the court this season.

‘It was a family decision,’ he said. ‘Once the doctor told me I had a chance to come back, I took the opportunity to come back.’

Hazell also turns 25 in March, so staying an extra year could have had negative effects on his potential professional career. Ultimately, though, this season has put a dent into his NBA prospects.

‘It’s going to make it a lot tougher for him to get drafted, no question,’ said Aran Smith, president of NBAdraft.net. ‘The real turmoil that he has gone through, I think he’s seen as an undrafted guy.’

Hazell said his time on the bench was sobering. The Pirates were 5-8 with him out. It was tough to sit and watch his team’s season go downhill, he said.

Herb Pope was there to help Hazell cope with both his injury and time on the bench. He was the perfect candidate to help Hazell get by because Pope, Seton Hall’s junior forward, has dealt with his share of adversity in life as well.

Pope averaged a double-double last season, but in April the junior suddenly collapsed on Seton Hall’s weight room floor. He was found to have a heart defect that disrupts regular blood flow.

And Pope, like Hazell, beat the odds by making it back onto the court. So Pope was there for Hazell, especially after the attempted robbery and shooting.

Because Pope, too, has been shot. Four times. All during his high school career in Aliquippa, Pa.

‘I just called him, asked him how he’s doing and told him I’ve been through worse,’ Pope said. ‘He chuckled and laughed.

‘I just kept telling him he’s going to be all right.’

Under first-year head coach Kevin Willard, Seton Hall has not had as successful a season as anyone around the school would have hoped for. But it is not for a lack of effort. Hazell was SHU’s leading scorer in each of the past two seasons. His injury was a backbreaker to the team.

Seton Hall was 2-1 under Willard with Hazell in the lineup early in the season. The Pirates are just 1-3 since the senior has returned, but Willard already sees the effects of having his leading scorer back.

‘Having Jeremy Hazell back has obviously been huge,’ Willard said in the Big East coaches’ teleconference Thursday. ‘Now it’s just a matter of getting everybody working together for the last half of the season.’

Of the Pirates’ 12 losses, nine are by single digits — including the first matchup with Syracuse, a game in which Seton Hall shot 3-of-26 from 3-point range but lost by only five. Hazell is back to sure up that dismal outside shooting.

The senior isn’t a great percentage shooter — just 35.4 percent from beyond the arc this season — but he isn’t afraid to shoot from anywhere on the court.

Not being afraid. That’s something both Hazell and Pope can attest to. So much has happened to these two Seton Hall players off the court that any controversy on the court isn’t all that controversial to them.

‘We’re the only two guys in America on the same team that have been shot,’ Pope said. ‘And that’s (affected) how we play. Trying to stay calm, it’s not taken as seriously.’

Hazell agreed with Pope’s sentiments that his off-the-court problems have yielded a different mindset. It isn’t that basketball is no longer important, but perhaps it has been given a greater value.

The senior’s near-death experience has obviously affected his values. And the game is a safe haven. A place where he can run free.

‘I’m a humble kid right now because of the two things I went through,’ Hazell said. ‘It was probably life threatening. I wouldn’t be here right now. I’m just happy right now that I was blessed and rooting for Seton Hall.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on January 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr