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College basketball world mourns Lew Hill, ex-OU assistant who 'represented the best of all we could want’

NORMAN — Lew Hill’s eyes lit up when he started talking about Isaiah Cousins.

Hill, the former OU assistant who was a major key in bringing Cousins and other Sooners into the program leading up to the 2016 Final Four run, had a special bond with Cousins.

Both grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, tucked just north of the Bronx. Both used basketball to get away to a different environment.

“He’s me,” Hill said of Cousins during Cousins’ time at OU. “That’s what I tell him, he was me. I went through the same stuff.