CHICAGO — Saturday night, the New Orleans Hornets and point guard Baron Davis came into the United Center and defeated the Chicago Bulls.

But Saturday morning, Illinois sophomore guard Deron Williams represented a younger version of Davis and helped the Illinois men's basketball team (4-1) defeat Arkansas 84-61 in the United Center.

"He went from being simply a point guard (last year) to more of a Baron Davis guard, passing the ball and scoring," Illinois sophomore guard Dee Brown said, comparing Williams' performance this year and last year. "Basically he's in the situation as one of the best in the country right now, as far as all-around game passing and scoring. He's showing people that he can score ... He's making baskets and I hope he keeps that confidence."

Williams led the Illini in points and assists by scoring 17 points with 10 assists. The 10 assists mark the highest assist total during Williams' Illinois career and gives him the first double-double since playing for the Illini.

"I always look to get assists," Williams said. "I'm a pass-first guard."

Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said that Williams' ability to get assists comes from him knowing his teammates' tendencies on the court.

"Great awareness or savvy of the game, I think that's probably the best thing about him," Weber said. "I hope that rubs off on some of the other guys. We can draw something up and Deron, he knows all of the positions. Some of the guys can't figure out what they're supposed to do. He'll be telling other guys what to do. Hopefully, it drifts over to other guys and they pick up his mentality."

Not only did Williams' passing establish a new career high, but many of the passes were into Illinois' post players. Williams' passing helped sophomore forward James Augustine score 12 points, junior center Nick Smith add 10 points and redshirt freshman forward Aaron Spears contribute eight points.

Augustine scored and rebounded Saturday as part of a double-dozen that contributed 12 rebounds to his scoring total. However, Augustine was the only other Illini with more than five rebounds. As a result, Arkansas out rebounded Illinois 42-40.

"It seems like every game it's something new," Weber said. "(Against North) Carolina it's free throws. Everyone tells me to work on free throws. Now it's rebounding. If we can still hold them to 30- some percent that's pretty good effort and they still had all those offensive rebounds. We talked about it at halftime. Our guards … they can't rely on the bigs to get all the rebounds."

A pair of Augustine rebounds helped Illinois get out to an early 6-0 lead against the Razorbacks. The lead stayed around six until 11 minutes, 48 seconds remaining in the first half. Illinois picked up their intensity and used a 10-0 run over a three-minute span to increase their lead to 14 points.

All the points on the 10-0 run came from Illinois' sophomore trio of Augustine (two points), Brown (three points) and Williams (five points).

Illinois then used a 13-3 run with 7:36 to play in the first half to increase Arkansas' deficit to 20 points. Illinois junior forward Roger Powell scored four to start the stretch and the Illini never looked back.

Many attribute Illinois' success so far to the emergence of Williams' offensive skills. Williams averaged 6.3 points per game last season, but he has avoided a sophomore slump by scoring 16.4 points per game in 2003-2004. This emergence does not surprise Williams.

"I always had this in me," Williams said. "I was just limited last year. Under Coach Weber, I've just been able to shine."