I’m not sure Ohio State has anybody who can defend him.

In his freshman season, Green set a career high for scoring (at that time) with 22 points against UConn on Jan. 8. One week later, at Villanova, he set his career high for rebounds with 12 (he has matched that a couple of times).

I saw him in person for the first time that week. I watched as he effortlessly did his job. I focused on him alone and I was convinced then that he was special. I remember thinking to myself right then that Green was the player Rudy Gay should have been at UConn. They have the same build. They were classmates. Gay received more hype but never reached those expectations with the Huskies. If Gay had played the way Green has played in this NCAA Tournament, UConn would have won the national championship last season instead of losing to George Mason in the regional final.

The Big East coaches didn’t automatically select the top scorer in the conference when they voted for Player of the Year. They knew it was Green because they had to prepare for him all season. He was named Most Outstanding Player of the Big East tournament. UConn coach Jim Calhoun told The Hartford Courant that Green is “far and away the best player in our league ... . It’s almost like he’s being taught by Dean Smith.”

If high praise doesn’t convince you, maybe numbers will do the trick. Check this out: When Green passed 600 career rebounds against Notre Dame in the Big East semifinals, he became only the second player in Georgetown history with at least 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 300 assists.

Reggie Williams is the other.

That’s fine company. Real fine.

“I like everything about his game,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said of Green. “I like the fact that he’s big, he’s long, he’s tough. Jeff Green makes a lot of winning plays. He can shoot threes. He’s great on the block. He’s got a mid-range game that most guys his size don’t have, and there’s just not much that he can’t do.

“In addition to doing all those things, he makes other people better on his team. That might be what I like the best.”

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