Butler's Ronald Nored, right, looks to shoot over Wright State's Scott Grote in the first half of an... 
(AP)
No. 12 Butler insists the real work is just beginning.
After winning 20 straight games, cruising to the Horizon League regular-season title and routing second-seeded Wright State 70-45 for the conference tournament title Tuesday night, the Bulldogs suddenly have bigger aspirations.
Among them: extending the nation's longest winning streak. They'll get to try that in next week's NCAA tournament.
"It's pretty good, but I hope the guys aren't happy with this, that they don't want this to be the highlight of their year," tournament MVP Matt Howard said. "So I don't know when we're going to practice again, but I hope when we get back, they've got a bigger goal and a bigger vision in mind."
Clearly, the Bulldogs (28-4) want to prove they're a worthy foe in the 65-team NCAA field.
Butler hasn't lost since Dec. 22 at Alabama-Birmingham. Its latest victory was every bit as one-sided as the Bulldogs' rampage through the Horizon League. They head into NCAA play as the only Division I team to complete a perfect conference season, going 20-0 against league foes including the two tournament games.
Howard, last season's Horizon League player of the year, had 14 points and nine rebounds. Shelvin Mack scored all 14 of his points, including four 3-pointers, in the first half. Zach Hahn came off the bench to score 11 points, and Gordon Hayward, this season's conference player of the year, had eight points and four rebounds.
The game was so lopsided coach Brad Stevens allowed only one Butler player to log more than 30 minutes, and the final 15 minutes felt more like a coronation than a celebration.
It was exactly how Butler envisioned finishing this season after spending the past 12 months reliving those agonizing memories from the loss to Cleveland State in last year's final.
Now there's a new mission for the Bulldogs, who bowed out to LSU in the first round last season.
