Just the way Wisconsin cornerback Jamar Fletcher likes it.

"Oh, yeah, it's very much like basketball," said the SportsLine.com/Lindy's Football preseason defensive player of the year. "It's just you and the receiver, and you're going to see who's better.

"It's funny. My freshman year, I never really talked noise on the field. But after I had a pretty good year, I would run out there and people on the sideline were talking noise to me. Then the receiver would start."

At 5-feet-10 and 170 pounds, Fletcher might lack size, but he does not lack confidence.

Wisconsin's Jamar Fletcher has 14 interceptions in 21 career games, and he's returned five for TDs.(Provided to SportsLine)

"I don't start talking noise," he said. "But I finish it."

Fletcher usually gets the best of the battles, verbal and nonverbal. The preseason defensive player of the year in the Big Ten has 14 interceptions in 21 career games. Five of them he returned for touchdowns, a Big Ten career record.

Entering his junior year, he already has two Rose Bowl victories. The biggest games bring out his best efforts. He had seven tackles, including six solos in the Badgers' Rose Bowl victory over Stanford. A year earlier in the Rose Bowl, his 46-yard interception return for a touchdown was the margin of victory over UCLA.

Against Michigan State last season, he locked up star receiver Plaxico Burress and had two interceptions in a rout for the Badgers. Against Purdue, he intercepted Drew Brees twice, including one in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach.

"I think what separates him is anticipation," Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said. "Having been a high school quarterback, he can put himself in the quarterback's head. He can see things differently. A lot of guys have the speed and the physical attributes, but I think that somewhere along the line, you need a feel for the game."

Fletcher was a cornerback and option quarterback at Hazelwood (Mo.) East High School near St. Louis. His brother Jason played receiver at Southwestern Louisiana. Because of his height, Jamar had no illusions about playing quarterback in college. But he thought his experience playing a lot of tight man-to-man coverage in high school would serve him well. He chose Wisconsin in part because he saw an opportunity for playing time early in his career.

Fletcher redshirted his first season, once playing the role of former Syracuse quarterback Donovan McNabb for the scout team. The following year, he sprained an ankle on the first play of the season and missed two games. Soon, however, Fletcher established himself as someone with a knack for big plays.

Alvarez knew he had someone special.

"I had Troy Vincent here, and I had to convince him that he was a great player," Alvarez said of the former Badger who is now a Pro Bowl cornerback with the Philadelphia Eagles. "I had just had Todd Lyght at Notre Dame. First-round pick in the draft. Fifth overall. I told Troy, 'You're bigger, faster, very physical.' The kid looked up at me, and said, 'Really?' "

And Fletcher's confidence?

"That's never a problem with Jamar," Alvarez said. "He sauntered in here -- and he was about 150 pounds soaking wet."

When it comes to the NFL, though, Fletcher tones down the talk. Agents call him and they call his parents. But Fletcher said he didn't even have a fleeting thought about leaving school after last season.

"I know I'm not ready at all for the NFL," he said. "I have a long way to go. I want to prove that I'm the best corner in the country. Last year, people thought there were two or three corners better than me. I thought otherwise, but that's the way it goes."

There are worse places to be than the school that has won two consecutive Rose Bowl games. For Fletcher and other Wisconsin athletes, the adulation has included deep bargain shopping at a Madison-area sporting goods store, which the Wisconsin State Journal reported might have violated NCAA rules. The store owner said he gives discounts to all students.

"I didn't get a discount," Fletcher said. "I got the same thing everybody else did."

On the field, he would like to be given a little extra this season -- extra work. Like most cornerbacks, Fletcher is a Deion Sanders fan. Like Sanders and 1997 Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson, Fletcher wants to play some offense this season.

The trick is convincing Alvarez.

"I would love to play offense," Fletcher said. "I joke around with him. I mean, I'm serious about it. He jokes around. I hope it'll happen."

Alvarez said it probably won't happen.

"I think about that sometimes," Alvarez said. "I thought about it last year. When I see the ball in his hands, he has tremendous running skills. We'll use him on special teams and put him on the opponent's best receiver. I'm concerned about fatigue setting in."

Continuing the Sanders connection, Fletcher says he thinks he could have played professional baseball. For now, he might have to be content with football, with defense, with getting ready for the best receivers in the Big Ten.

"You can't go out there scared," Fletcher said. "You have to approach every play like you're going to dominate the receiver. They're the same way. They feel they can't be stopped."

Fletcher will be happy to discuss any disagreements across the line of scrimmage.

Photos courtesy of the University of Wisconsin.