It's best we realize what he is

Did both the Conte Forum crowd of 8,606 and the national television audience fully realize they were watching the best pure forward in the country play last evening?

Jared Dudley is not the flashiest, not the quickest, not the strongest, and not the Most Likely To Be In The Lottery. He's simply the best.

I would be willing to bet my autographed picture of Tim Duncan that there is not one college coach in America who would refuse to crawl over 100 yards of broken glass if the prize were Jared Dudley's presence in his lineup.

And I can guarantee you Tom Izzo would be at the head of the line.

"Dudley might end up my favorite player of the year," gushed the Michigan State mentor, whose Spartans were tormented by the 6-foot-7-inch BC senior, who led the Eagles to a 65-58 victory in an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game.

For Dudleyologists, it was nothing out of the ordinary. San Diego's gift to The Heights had 30 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and, just to reassure everyone of his mortality, 1 turnover. And then you could rhapsodize about his sheer presence, which is worth several baskets in and of itself.

Al Skinner, meanwhile, is apparently numbed to Dudley's ongoing greatness. "The thing that was most important today was that we played at a pace that was comfortable for us," he pointed out. "The execution was what we needed it to be, and that got him some great looks."

Make no mistake. BC's flex offense was, in fact, made for Dudley. It plays to his strengths and when BC is functioning smoothly Dudley is doubly dangerous. But the other side of the coin is that Dudley maximizes every conceivable opportunity presented him. If you argue, for example, that the flex leaves you in reasonably good position to grab some offensive rebounds, no one would dissent. That Dudley would be the one to pull down four first-half offensive rebounds and score 6 of his 13 first-half points on putbacks is entirely predictable. No accident, that.

Some people wondered how much Dudley would miss the menacing inside presence of Craig Smith this season. The answer is that the BC team misses Smith. Who wouldn't? But Dudley as an individual? No way. Dudley is a lot more than a mere pilot fish. He is the starting point of a team's offense, not some auxiliary member of it.

"He does everything you'd want somebody to do," Izzo said. "He rebounds. He plays hard. He takes only good shots. I mean, he really schooled us tonight. I love what he did. It was like a pro guy doing it to a rookie."

There is no end to the ways Dudley can help a team. "He owns the baseline," said Izzo. "He can handle it. He's really strong, and he's just a jack of all trades. He is multidimensional, and he just seems to have toughness without showing it."

Izzo didn't specifically mention the word "shoot," or any of its derivatives, but let the record show Dudley can indeed shoot. He was largely responsible for giving BC the double-digit cushion it needed to control the game when he deposited a pair of transition threes and a long two during a BC run that boosted the Eagles to a 48-35 lead with 10:07 remaining. He was 3 for 3 from beyond the arc.

So does all this really add up to him being the best forward in America? Hey, it's not such a parochial notion. Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, which laps the field in terms of preview magazine credibility, has him on its first-team preseason All-America team, along with Joakim Noah (Florida), Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina), Glen "Big Baby" Davis (LSU), and Ron Steele (Alabama). Messrs. Noah, Hansbrough, and Davis are all essentially post players (Noah being the most flexible of the three). Dudley is the only pure forward.

That's a very good call. None of the high-flying, highlight-film AAU pups out there can touch Dudley when it actually comes to playing, you know, basketball.

"He may not have that blazing athleticism," said Izzo. "But he just has a feel. I told our guys when we were watching film on BC that he doesn't panic. He just steps through the double teams, and he never forces shots. How many superstars can say that? There is a calmness about him, but with an aggressive demeanor. That's a great contribution."

The double-double was Dudley's fourth in five games this season, and the 18th of his BC career. With Smith gone to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Dudley knows he will need to rebound more in order to help BC win, and he will do just that. Double-doubles will be the norm.

Now, if he's the best pure forward in the country, it stands to reason he is the best pure forward BC has ever had, and he is. I've seen them all for the last 42 years, and it's an easy call. We can debate BC guards from now till Washington's birthday, but the forward debate is over. Hold all calls. We have a winner.

Now we can play the semantics game and debate just exactly what position Danya Abrams and Smith played, but the truth is they were pure post-up players. Dudley is a pure forward. He can face the basket in the halfcourt. He can advance the basketball. He can post up. And as Izzo says, he is the absolute King of the Baseline.

But what coaches love is that he doesn't demand to do any of these things. All he wants to do is win the game.

"He is such a good player," Izzo said. "He's maybe the best we'll come across all season. He's the best all-around, because he doesn't have to have the basketball to do damage. I guess he'd be fun to coach."

Only Al Skinner knows, and he seems to be saving his best stuff for his memoirs. But we can guess that the answer is "yes."

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.