KIERON ACHARA still wonders if he could have prevented the shooting; had he said or done something, could he have stopped what came so close to being another massacre on a campus in America?

Five minutes more spent dancing to hip-hop on the student union stage and he might have felt the jolt of .38-calibre and 9mm bullets. Instead, he was lucky; he just heard the crackle of gunfire and the screams of panic.

His existence, 3000 miles and an ocean away from his home in Stirling, had seemed idyllic and simple but, within a few seconds, innocence was shattered and all that remained was turmoil and an anxious wait to discover whether his team-mates would live.

Survivor's guilt, they call it. Nine months have passed since the night when the laughter at a party at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh turned to sorrow and ended in two men charged with attempted homicide.

It was all about a girl. She, witnesses say, was flirting with the basketball team to the chagrin of the alleged assassins. As they headed for home, five of the players were shot; two in the arm, a third in the hand, another in the foot, one in the head. Improbably, all survived.

"I rushed back and saw what was happening. It was horrible," recalls Achara. "We all went to the hospital afterwards and we just sat there, waiting for news, not really knowing if they were all going to die.

"Over there I used to watch the news and see shootings. It seemed like it was some place else, like another country. I know Pittsburgh has some rough areas but Duquesne always felt like a safe place. That's all changed now."

Standing 6ft 9in high, and with a wingspan which stretches still further, blending in has never been easy. Some played the race card in the aftermath, given that Duquesne has only a small black minority among its student populous.

"I've never really seen race as an issue," says Achara, whose father is Nigerian and mother Scottish. "You go into Pittsburgh and in my eyes it's a melting pot. When I come back to Scotland you might not bump into five black people in a whole weekend."

Only in Maine, where he finished up high school, did he feel the underside of the colour card. And in Scotland.

Being a stranger in a foreign land has, however, re-inforced his roots. The accent is undiluted. There is a Saltire carved in ink on his forearm, as if to remind him of the ties that bind. In Pittsburgh, the diaspora keep him grounded.

"I have a good friend, Scottie, who is my room-mate," he says. "His family are from Govan and he's a big Rangers fan like me. I'm good friends with a priest who is from Kirkintilloch. I also keep in touch with friends from back home. I don't think about it too much but I don't want to lose that connection."

He has been among compatriots this week. Achara is one of two Scots in the 20- strong Great Britain squad (former NBAer Robert Archibald is the other) who gathered for training camp in Florida ahead of the Euro- basket qualifiers. At 24, he is among the youngest, but after four years in the rough and tumble of the collegiate game he is not the least experienced .

"I definitely feel I'm ready," the former Falkirk Fury star says. Not only will Achara bring skills, but he will bring a mature perspective.

He was the captain and figurehead at Duquesne, forced to lead by example and to carry an even greater load in the aftermath of the shooting. The experience, he admits, took a heavy toll. The season before last, The Dukes were one of the worst teams in college basketball - 332nd out of 334. Fighting adversity, they won 11 of their 26 games last year. He found his faith and his fervour severely challenged. "It was difficult but it has made me stronger," he says. "I've learned to be more of a leader."

Just one more campaign remains to prove he can cut it in the paid ranks, either back in Europe, or even in the NBA.

"I want to achieve that goal. But I know it could be taken away from me at any time so I don't want to put my eggs all in one basket. But after what we went through, putting in a bit of extra effort doesn't seem quite such a big deal."