Saturday afternoon’s game between Wisconsin and Illinois was billed as a showdown between budding rivals Devin Harris and Dee Brown. However, the anticipated duel between the two turned out to be as lopsided as the game itself.

Harris, the coaches’ preseason Big Ten Player of the Year, poured in a career-high 30 points against various Illini defenders. Meanwhile, Brown, who was selected by the media as preseason Player of the Year, struggled en route to a four-point outing.

Coming off one of the worst games in his collegiate career, a five-point game against Michigan, Harris was aggressive from the onset, taking the ball to the basket early and often.

“I think that got me in trouble on Wednesday, not being aggressive all the time,” Harris said. “I wanted to make a conscious effort right away to attack the basket and not settle for jump shots.”

Harris made just one of six shots against the Wolverines, and did not score until he sank a free throw with 14:35 remaining in the second half. His first field goal came on a lay-up with just 2:04 remaining in the game. By the end of Saturday’s first half, he had already scored 16 points on five of seven shooting. He is the first Badger to score 30 points in a game since Kirk Penney did so on Feb. 16, 2002 in Minnesota.

“He’s just a very smart player,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said of Harris. “He doesn’t have a great night the other night. I told the kids, ‘He’s going to come motivated. Great players rise up. He’s not going to sit back and let that happen two games in a row.'”

Illinois’ initial game plan was to check the Badger star with the cat-quick Brown, but that strategy quickly fell to the wayside as Harris had his way with his counterpart. Weber was forced to switch the defensive assignment, shifting Deron Williams and, at times, Luther Head onto Harris.

“We thought Dee’s quickness might hurt Harris. Obviously it didn’t,” Weber said. “Then we rotated Deron to him.”

Even Williams, perhaps the best on-ball defender in the Big Ten, could not slow down Harris, who finished with a new career-high point total, sinking nine of 15 shots and getting to the foul line with consistency.

Brown, dubbed “The One Man Fastbreak,” was unable to get into the offensive flow, attempting only eight field goals and making just two in 35 minutes. He went into the locker room scoreless at halftime and did not score until the 8:29 mark of the second half, the polar opposite of Harris’s performance.

“It was just one of those games,” Harris said of Brown’s afternoon in comparison to his. “He had one of those games that I had on Wednesday. I can’t really say much about it, just a great shooting night. I’m playing at home. I’m sure he’ll have a pretty good game when we go to Illinois. It really doesn’t say much.”

Harris’s dominance extended to the defensive end, where he hounded Brown all game long to the tune of three turnovers and just two assists.

“Excellent anticipating of spots, good chase, good hedges,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said of Harris’s defense on Brown. “When we look at the film, I’m sure he’s going to grade out pretty high on how he handled those things.”

Ryan would like to think that his point guard did not need the added motivation of playing against the much-ballyhooed Illini guard.

“If us playing Illinois with Dee Brown causes one of my players to play better and to work harder or to do anything else to take as a challenge, then I’m not doing my job,” Ryan said. “Devin tries to play well every night, and I certainly hope that it wasn’t because of a certain name on a jersey.”

Harris was quick to echo his coach’s sentiments.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” he said. “I think I had one of my worst games on Wednesday, so I wanted to bounce back from that, come out and have a pretty good game.”