After two Big Ten wins last week, the men's basketball team moved up to No. 8 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll. The Badgers travel to Iowa on Wednesday, and then return home on Saturday to host Purdue.

Head coach Bo Ryan addressed the media Monday at his weekly press conference and discussed last week's games as well as previewed the upcoming week.

Click here for archived video of the press conference or read the transcript below.

QUESTION #1: Bo, when Iowa beats Ohio State, and you can see that they're improving, when Penn State beats a Michigan State, a big win, obviously, for them too, some of the national pundits like to say, well, maybe the Big Ten is not that strong. But I would think in your mind, it goes to show that the Big Ten is pretty good and getting better now that you see Iowa and Penn State and Purdue making improvements. Wouldn't you agree'

BO RYAN: Yeah. It's just a matter of how you want to spin it, just like anything else. Kind of reminds you of the election is coming up and how people are portrayed and certain issues are presented. If it happens one way, it 's because of this, if you're on this side, and if you're over here, sure. That's never going to change. It's just it's hard to get it done consistently. Especially this time of the year, you see a lot of things starting to play out. It's hard to be on the left-hand side every time.

If you're a competitive league, you're going to have people knocking other people off. Depends on the schedule, depends on how many teams you're playing twice. Still boils down, because we don't play everybody home and away, it 's still that factor of who you have your other games with, your single games with. And you know, some teams had five at home, four away, some had four at home, five away, or whatever, on the schedule the first nine, and then it flip-flops the next one. So a lot of, you know, there's a still a lot to be played. The league is still pretty competitive.

QUESTION #2: You had talked a little bit about the maturation of Jason Bohannon and his game going into your sophomore year, you like to see some changes going, taking place, which have been taking place for him. Just talk about his all around game and what he's doing for you guys.

RYAN: Well, the first part you asked about maturation. I don't think he's shaving any more times per week. I still think it's once a week, as opposed to once a month last year. He's getting better with his feet. He probably doesn't appear to be a muscle beach guy to you, to fans, or people out there, but he's actually pretty strong, you know, in the weight room and some of the things that he does. His core strength is pretty good, so he's better that way, and he'll continue to get better that way.

And if he can take some of that success knocking down a couple threes against Minnesota, take it into the next game, and the following games, because we can use that, you know, because he can stretch the defense of the other teams. But he's just, a hard worker, smart young man, so guys like that tend to improve, and he's been doing that.

QUESTION #3: Defensively, is he, looks like he 's doing a better in chasing and just maybe staying with his guy. Can you talk a little about that'

RYAN: Well, that's being around the game. Like I said, if you're a hard worker, and you've got basketball IQ, and it means anything to you, you'll get better.

QUESTION #4: Bo, earlier this year, maybe it was in that first press conference, you talked about Marcus Landry and his, you know, that at that point I think you said something to the effect that he has the, maybe the biggest, he could make the biggest jump because of the transition he was going through. Is his production at this point kind of what you were thinking of when you were talking about him making that jump'

RYAN: He's working at it. I can usually make those evaluations a lot better at the end of the year, but he's been pretty consistent. His shooting percentage could have been better simply by, you know, better choice of shot fakes and using those to get defenders out of position, but he's doing fine. I always see flaws, so, and we point them out, but he's doing fine.

That's one of those weighted balls being thrown against the wall in the weight room.

QUESTION #5: This goes back a couple games, but I never found out from you, after watching it on tape, was it goaltending on Flowers drive that looked like he took it off the backboard or pinned it or whatever on the steal . . . going in and Ellis went up and . . .

RYAN: Nah. You know me, I don't, there 's no protest from this guy.

QUESTION #6: But what did you see . . .

RYAN: The game's over. It's done. Just play. Get to the next one.

QUESTION #7: But at your review of the film, was it a good call or was'

RYAN: Fine. It was a great call. What do I care ' It's over. I don't dwell on, I'm not obsessive, you know that.

QUESTION #8: Bo, I don't know how much you've seen of Iowa since you just played yesterday, but if you have taken a closer look or maybe your assistants, obviously, are you seeing improvement from the first time that you played them' Do they seem to really get what Coach Lickliter 's trying to put in there'

RYAN: Yeah, and they've got some, they 've got a fine team. What's a fine team' A team that can shoot it, strength with the ball at point. Freeman is doing a great job with the ball. Their bigs have improved, and defensively, I mean, they're a good team that's picked up what they're supposed to be doing and making it very difficult for the other team. So that fits right into probably why he got the job there.

QUESTION #9: Well, I'll take a stab at this, but at the midpoint of the . . .

RYAN: It's not about goaltending, is it '

QUESTION #10: No. But as you get to the midpoint of the conference season, is there a guy in your mind that, you know, maybe you probably wouldn't name him, but is there a guy that you think has been, can you identify a most valuable guy for this team, you know, in your evaluations, in your mind, is there someone that you have in mind when, you know, you think, you know, who's been that most valuable guy for you to this point'

RYAN: No. It's a team, and I 've never gotten into, I've never had a banquet with a most valuable player, with a most improved player, with a this, that, the other thing player. It 's still about the team. I would never designate a most valuable player. The most important thing is how every player lifts the next guy up to his right and to his left and across from him. You ever play hearts' Left, right, across, hold' With players, look across from you, can you trust him' Look to your left, look to your right, and look to your self, and if you feel comfortable with all those directions, then you're in a pretty good situation.

QUESTION #11: On that note, talk to any of your players about why your defense has been so good, and they talk about all five guys on the floor playing together. Is that what you're seeing from Iowa too with their defense and why their defense is so improved'

RYAN: Well, yeah. Obviously, if they're doing that, if they're doing things together, they're going to be tougher. That's still the way it tends to work, and it hasn't changed over the decades.

QUESTION #12: Coach, after yesterday's game, you said you'll take a beginning, middle, and end like that. Is that one of your more complete games'

RYAN: Well, because the question was about the start of the game.

QUESTION #13: Right.

RYAN: Was that a good, was that a perfect, was that a good start' Yeah, it'd be a great start, it'd be a great middle, and it'd be a great ending if you could have that kind of efficiency on your possessions.

QUESTION #14: Was it one of your more complete victories of the season so far, do you think'

RYAN: I don't know how to measure complete or incomplete because, you know, they go into a column, but I was really happy with the way we played, with our task assignments that were completed, for the most part. But believe it or not, I've got a page full of things we're going over here at 1:30, of things we got to do better if we want to get the next one.

QUESTION #15: Bo, much was made of the whole Wisconsin/Iowa rivalry during the football season. Is this a big rivalry for you guys, do you look at it that way at all'

RYAN: Okay, I probably missed that. What do you mean, Wisconsin, because Bret went to school there' He has two Hawkeye tattoos. You guys have only seen one. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. He has one. I don 't know. Rivalry, look, we got bordering states. Is it true that Indiana and Purdue only play each other once and Michigan/Michigan State only play each other once ' Somebody mentioned that to me. Was that you, Mark, that said it'

We play our bordering states twice, home and away, home and away, Illinois, except Michigan State if you go Upper Peninsula, but we play Michigan twice. But we have, you know, I just never did the rivalry thing to my team, to have them think that one game is different than another.

The classic is when a kid at Platteville was interviewed nationally; ESPN came in and did a story on our program. Scott Borroughs was asked, a kid from Verona, do you guys get fired up for Whitewater, because it was us playing Whitewater and Whitewater was undefeated at the time. Don't tell Coach Ryan this, but, yeah, we get fired up for Whitewater, but you can't tell Coach Ryan. And the guy asked me after, he said why, I said because I don't treat Whitewater any differently than Stevens Point, Eau Claire, or La Crosse, and it certainly didn't hurt us there by not making one game bigger than the rest of them.

Now, in football, you play each other once, and they've got these pigs in a blanket and other things they give out for tomahawks. That's great. I think that is really good stuff. I mean, that's one game a year you play, one game a week, and I think those rivalry things are great for them. In basketball, when you're in a league though, you can't get real high for one and then try to deal with the letdowns or whatever, one way or the other, getting too high and then a victory and then letting down. We don't do that. I don't do that. Now if players do, they hide it, so that's the best answer I can give you. I could have just said, I don 't think of them as a rival. They're all rivals. They're the next game. I know that's too simplistic, but I honestly think that way. I know that's scary to some people.

QUESTION #16: When you looked at film, there were a lot of balls dribbling off of feet in the second half yesterday . . .

RYAN: Oh, wow, did we have. J-Bo [Jason Bohannon] hits his knee, ball goes off Mike's [Michael Flowers] foot, Pop [Trevon Hughes] has a ball hit, kids tips it and it hits him in the chest and he loses it. Yeah, there was a little stretch in there. Thank goodness you take the overall 40 minutes and not just one part. Wow, that was amazing to me, but sometimes those things happen and you have to play through them.

QUESTION #17: Is that when you use a timeout to just say forget it or do you just not even address it or how do you, how do you handle a situation like that'

RYAN: Well, they know they've made a mistake at times, so you don't have to remind them so much of that. It's just what we need to do in order to work the clock, to keep them from getting the easy buckets, to take away any momentum that they might be getting from that. That's all you're trying to do. And then after that, we went on, you know, we were fine.

QUESTION #18: They were pretty much unforced too, weren't they'

RYAN: That's what I'm talking about, yeah.