The Following is a transcript of University of Wisconsin head basketball coach Bo Ryan's Monday press conference.

On the stress of coaching:

Ryan: "When asked about it, when you say it, 'how do you feel about the Illinois game... The question about stress was, or the relation between coach and stress is if you're not prepared, you know, you might not always have healthy players, the best talent, not every team has that and there's different levels. But the most important things is that you're trying to get that team that you're coaching at that particular time better. So you worry about, if you call it worry, but you concern yourself with getting your team better. I think a lot of coaches stress out or get the stress-related illnesses…when you really start worrying about the things that you don't have any control over. Well, you have somewhat control over how good the other team is if you get your guys to play a little bit better, smarter and tougher. I look at Illinois and I think our guys can play. I think they're working at it. I think they're giving us great effort. But right now Illinois is a little bit better and I can say that and not just because they're ahead of us in the standings, but because they're proving it against everybody they've come up against. I think the best thing to do is, no matter what point in the season it is – the last half of the Big Ten, the first half non-conference – is you're working with your team. Doing the best you can with your team and you try to get them playing off of one another. Try to keep anything from tearing that apart or dividing and I've been very, very fortunate as a coach to not have problems like that and I think that at least gives us a chance."

On the Badgers' low number of assists:

Ryan: "Well, first of all and assists are tough to get in some places. There are universities that will give you an assist if the basket was made 15 seconds later after the individual made about five moves. So I don't; I gave up a long time ago even worrying about that. If you're being efficient, that one point per possession thing. The other thing is, we're getting some attacks to the basket where if a guy blows by on a wing; Kam Taylor. Every one of those baskets Kam has picked up driving to the hoop beating a guy, those are unassisted. So you don't panic. Sometimes when a guy catches it in the post does a Sikma move, squares up, makes a counter move, boom and scores, there's not a guy getting an assist for that. So I'm not concerned."

On points per possession against Illinois:

Ryan: "About as high as you can get without getting a 'W.' .98 something and they were 1.1 something, so the assessment after the game didn't change. A couple less turnovers, a few more free throws and they don't hit a couple of those long threes as the shot clock expired you got a heck of an opportunity and we didn't even have to shoot Georgetown numbers, or Villanova numbers against Georgetown, which was 72 percent I believe."

On the Brian Butch:

Ryan: "I talked to him the other day on the road trip. You know what can you do, you need to rest. That's the best thing, so we didn't want to bother him too much. I'm not allowed to send flowers; I'm not allowed to send anything he's a student-athlete.

"Anyone here ever have mono? I've known people that have and it just makes you feel like not doing anything. So it's kind of hard to have him practicing."

On the Badgers' free throw shooting:

Ryan: "Actually we haven't totally. You take what we did Wednesday, save a couple of those and use them on Saturday. It's just feast or famine sometimes, that's all."

On Mike Wilkinson:

Ryan: "That would be a question more at the end of his career. He's still got a lot of games to play. You know, I talk to him about different things. He's a player that's committed to being successful and playing on a team that's successful. That's always the thing that stands out with Mike. But usually when you start answering those questions a guy is hanging it up. I'm not talking that way,"

On a nickname for Wilkinson if he moved to Chester, Pa.:

Ryan: "If he happened to move into Chester... A guy like Mike you don't find in Chester, but if he would have moved into Chester or there were some kind of program that he could pick his own high school and he came in, our guys in the neighborhood would call him 'Green Acres' absolutely – 'Green Acres.'"

If Butch has returned to class:

Ryan: "Today would be the first day. He went home last week. When the clear date would be you'll have to wait until our SID releases his official notification."

On teams focusing on Clayton Hanson:

Ryan: "They are and they've even said it and that's OK. He still competes on the other end and he makes some good decisions with the ball, he takes some charges, he works guys off of screens. We just needed a little bit more help from our bigs Saturday; a couple breakdowns there that we'll work on."

More on mononucleosis:

Ryan: "Oh, I have no idea. There have been so few cases of mono lately as far as my knowledge of players and stuff; I don't know how long it takes. It used to be that I could remember decades ago if you had mono it was a long period of time. Of course that might have been because Wilksbury being a coal mining area and everything and the air might of not been as pure. It probably even hurt their rehab."

On the maturity of the Badgers:

Ryan: "Well, if you take a look at how everybody ended up being where they are just in the senior class. You know, you got a guy in Mike Wilkinson that his parents didn't want to let him play with the AAU team that I have mentioned before when he was younger because they didn't want him too far away from the farm, and Vegas for an AUU tournament? But he was allowed to go and I remember watching him out there. He played for Pete Bry and that team, Louis Monroe, Kennedy. And it was kind of interesting to see him out there. Kind of like a fish out of water at first, and then just to see him grow over his years here.

"Clayton Hanson, just to see what he's gone through just to be in the position he's in now, what he sacrificed.

"Sharif Chambliss what he sacrificed to be where he is right now, and what he's coming off with the ACL surgery. Take a look around the league and tell me all the guys who had complete knee surgery. The whole, not just a little tear or anything like that, that had the surgery that Sharif's had and is still contributing the way he is."

"Zach Morley how he went the junior college rout because he thought he could end up at a bigger school and a bigger conference or a place he really wanted to be and he ends up being here.

"So when you say maturity, I like the seniors that we have. Andreas Helmigk, it's not easy coming from another country and coming here. So when you talk about maturity, those guys are getting through a heck of a lot more than other guys that are seniors at other universities, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. And everybody wants to talk about limitations or what guys can't do. And I've always, as a coach, OK what can we do? What can we do? What can you guys contribute? What do you have? Let's give it. Just take a look at that senior class and see how they got here. It's kind of an interesting phenomenon to me because you certainly can't look at anyone else's roster in the league and see a group like that and what they've been through. So in other words, we don't discourage easily. They don't discourage easily."

On stopping Illinois guard Luther Head's dribble penetration:

Ryan: "This goes live so I'm not saying here. But there are things we can improve on."

On Michigan without Daniel Horton:

"Well, Hunter's back. Hunter does a lot of good things. He'll help them. I mean he's helped them some. You know, it's still about the tendencies of a team and we'll prepare the same way we normally do and if someone isn't there it doesn't really change a lot that you do. Because he's subbed for also during the game so you say, 'OK when this guy is in the game these are his strengths, these are his weaknesses.' Sometimes when you do that though and you play off of certain guys it's amazing. It turns around and comes back to haunt you. But you have to play percentages, and you can adjust during the game. There's a lot of times I like to weigh our players and trust them on our own even before we have to say anything."

Coach's Valentine's Day plans:

Ryan: "A long time ago we decided its conversation, we tell each other what we feel about each other and a hug or two, a good meal at home, appreciate the kids and appreciate what we have, and that's better than any words written by somebody else on a card to us. And if you have stock in Hallmark that's too bad."