ROCHESTER – Put yourself in Craig Forth’s size 17 Nikes.

Come to practice every day, work as hard – and usually harder – than anyone else on the Syracuse men’s basketball team. You’re hard on yourself, too, every mistake wearing on your psyche. You’ll endure hellacious tongue-lashings from your coach, some of them after games, in public.

Then, run out to the Carrier Dome floor and get booed, game after game, by your own student section.

Last night, Forth turned in a performance that might finally make the boos go away. He grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds – topping his previous best by two – and scored a season-high eight points in 31 quality minutes.

He did it when it mattered, too. Forth secured three crucial, late-game rebounds when St. Bonaventure was making a furious rally. Would the Bonnies have pulled it out had Forth not yanked those boards? No. But still, it was Forth who produced in the clutch.

All this from a player who wasn’t even given a chance by his own fans this season. In the first two games, Forth received a chorus of boos, the sound that will likely – and unfairly – be his legacy once he graduates.

Forth has become such a maligned figured by SU fans that it has become a punchline of sorts to cheer for him. Craig converts a pre-game lay-up? The crowd mockingly goes wild.

Booing Craig Forth seems a part of the fans’ experience at the Carrier Dome, equal to chomping on a Dome Dog or chanting an R-rated version of the ‘Hey Song.’ Jeering Forth has become a bigger fad on SU’s campus than wearing gray New Balance sneakers.

Forth is an easy target. He’s blessed with 7 feet of height but cursed with the coordination of a man with two left feet. He botches easy lay-ups. He rebounds like he just lubed a car. His blonde coif is straight out the 1960s. Package that, and it’s kind of funny.

‘He’s had some tough games, like we all have,’ SU guard Gerry McNamara said. ‘For some reasons, it’s blown up because he’s 7-foot.’

That doesn’t mean Forth isn’t exceedingly valuable.

Yes, when fans buy a ticket it gives them the right to critique the players as loudly as they want. But that doesn’t make it correct, or intelligent.

You see the bobbled boards and lost points, but Forth makes up for that 10-fold with what you don’t see. He sets bone-jarring screens. His movement off the ball opens the lane for forward Hakim Warrick. He eats enough space in SU’s 2-3 zone for Warrick and Josh Pace to challenge outside shooters and trap ball handlers.

There’s a reason Forth has started every game since he’s been on the Hill. It’s not an accident he started at center for the national champions a year ago.

‘People don’t realize what he does for us,’ McNamara said. ‘He’s a big guy. He’ll hit you, he’ll wear you down. People get on him for not getting enough rebounds. Well, what about the screen he set that got me open and I hit a 3? Without him, we’d be in a tough spot.’

Still, he remains the SU faithful’s favorite whipping-boy. He’s not flashy. He doesn’t pour in electric 3-pointers and bring busloads of admirers to the Dome, like McNamara. His dunks are simple and workmanlike, unlike the earth-shattering slams of Warrick.

Forth does his dirty work behind the scenes where you can’t see him, and he does things that you wouldn’t applaud. The junior leads team stretching, a task normally reserved for seniors. When SU is having a sluggish practice, Forth is the one who wakes the Orangemen up, challenging his more talented teammates as he squeezes every ounce of athletic ability he can out of his awkward 7-foot frame.

Maybe Forth’s game against St. Bonaventure will change your mind. Maybe fans won’t snap the moment Forth misses a board. After the best game of his career, it might be nice to see fans let up.

‘Next time we go home,’ McNamara said, ‘he’s gonna get those cheers.’

Hopefully, McNamara’s right. Forth has heard enough boos.

ADAM KILGORE is a sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at ADKILGORE@syr.edu.

Published on December 3, 2003 at 12:00 pm