In the wake of Wisconsin?s first Big Ten victory of the season over Minnesota a little over a month ago, some dopey reporter at the post game press conference asked Bo Ryan how he was going to keep his team from overlooking their next four opponents (Ohio State, Iowa, Northwestern and Penn State) as they prepared for a relatively cushy stretch of their schedule.

Ryan responded by asking whom the Badgers were scheduled to play after the Ohio State game. And he was dead serious.

Last Saturday, after Wisconsin?s second-half flogging of the Indiana Hoosiers at the Kohl Center, another unknowing idiot asked Ryan what he thought of the Badgers? chances of winning another Big Ten title.

Ryan again responded by asking the reporter how many games his team had left to play in the regular season. Again, he wasn?t kidding.

Anyone who?s been around Bo Ryan since he came to Wisconsin two years ago knows that these are the kind of questions that has turned his hair completely gray at the age of 55.

He simply doesn?t buy into speculation and refuses to look past the next team on his schedule. Ask Ryan a question with the phrase ?must-win game? and he?ll embarrass you in front everyone present in the media room.

No one even dared asking him this week about Wisconsin?s absence in the Top 25 despite his team?s 18-6 record. In fact, he?s probably the only person in Madison right now not even concerned about it.

If it were up to Ryan, there would be no such thing as rankings in college basketball. Teams wouldn?t find out who their next opponent was until the final horn of their previous game had sounded and anyone who asked about the postseason before March would be given a restraining order from the Kohl Center.

Ryan, owner of college basketball?s highest winning percentage among active Division I coaches, sees the game from a different perspective than most people do. His unique approach to the sport and static coaching style are unparalleled in today?s standards of college hoops.

And while his unwavering persona may come off as rather senile at times, Ryan is anything but.

After inheriting a program last fall completely stripped of its nucleus and only returning one experienced player from the year before, he led the young Badgers to a share of the Big Ten title and back to the NCAA tournament. All of this happened while flying under the radar of most teams in the conference.

This year, however, has been a different story for college basketball?s most enigmatic coach. The game against Wisconsin has been circled on everyone?s calendars and they?re now a marked team in the country?s most underrated conference.

But to no one?s surprise, the Badgers are back on top — even better than they were a year ago. And it?s no doubt that Ryan?s uncanny ability to control and prepare his team is the main reason why Wisconsin is in position to win back-to-back Big Ten titles for the first time in school history.

The efficiency of Ryan to extract the absolute most from each of his active players has been a feat in it of itself. The Badgers have been a seven-man team this season, with two true freshmen being among those seven and only one senior.

Nevertheless, he has designed an offense in which four of the five starters average double figures in points and the unit as a whole is ranked fourth in the Big Ten in scoring at 73.0 points a contest — a starkly different figure than that of the Dick Bennett era.

Not lost from the Bennett regime, however, has been the in-your-face defense preached by the coaching staff. Toss out the early-season performances of Josh Howard and Dwayne Wade against UW last December, and this stingy defense has held the opposing team?s leading scorer well below their average each time he?s played the Badgers.

Oh, and Ryan?s defense is also tops in the conference, allowing less than 60 points per game.

By far the smallest team in the Big Ten (only one starter over 6-foot-5), Ryan has willed and challenged his players to outplay the bigger teams in the league, yielding a positive rebounding margin in the most physical conference in the nation.

Maybe it?s Ryan?s ability to control the tempo of a game that is ascending him to the ranks of the elite in college basketball. He has not lost a conference game at the Kohl Center in his two years at Wisconsin and he pulled off road wins last year at Michigan State, Indiana and Minnesota. No UW coach had done that since 1962.

Throughout the course of a game, Ryan plays his cards with the officials to perfection. He knows when to explode and when to bite his tongue. It?s an ability as overlooked as it is incomparable.

But what separates Bo Ryan?s team from the teams in the bottom tier of the conference and those who will soon be receiving invitations from the NIT is how mentally focused his players always are. They?re never distracted, intimidated or overconfident.

The Badgers are 18-6 right now simply because they win the games they?re supposed to win. They take care of the home court and knock off the games at Northwestern and Ohio State. Take last night?s debacle at Penn State out of the equation and the Badgers are near perfect in that department.

To win in this league you have to play with the big boys, but not get tripped up the little ones. Ryan couldn?t echo this any louder.

Even more promising than the rampage that Ryan has guided the Badgers on over the last two seasons is that this is only the beginning. Five of the seven regulars on the court are either sophomores or freshmen.

With the exception of the freakishly athletic Alando Tucker and Boo Wade, no one playing right now is even a recruit of Ryan.

The class he has coming in next year is already turning some heads from the far corners of the nation. Incoming freshman center Brian Butch is considered Wisconsin?s biggest recruit since Michael Finley. Ryan is establishing a program that people actually want to come be a part of.

But Ryan would never even think of commenting on the future of Wisconsin basketball. That?s just not his style. He?s too busy worrying about Iowa right now. And then whomever his team is playing after that.

Following the lead of their often-overlooked coach, the Wisconsin men?s basketball program has climbed to the top of the conference for a second year in a row. They know they should be in the Top 25 and they know they?re a lock for the NCAA tournament.

But don?t even think of asking Ryan about that.