Before first-year Butler head coach Brad Stevens pursued a coaching career, he worked in marketing for a pharmaceutical company.

Unfortunately, there's no cure for the heartache his five seniors felt when their season stopped a few games short of their goal. The Bulldogs' record-setting 2007-08 campaign ended with a 76-71 overtime loss to Tennessee in the second round of the NCAA East Regional in Birmingham, Ala.

Butler (30-4) set a school single-season record for victories and became the first team in Horizon League history to win 30 games. The Bulldogs climbed as high as No. 8 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and swept the conference's regular-season and tournament championships.

But with four senior starters and a senior sixth man, their hearts were set on reaching the Final Four and playing for a national championship.

"We're all pretty disappointed we didn't reach that. That's been our ultimate goal for the whole season," senior Drew Streicher said. "We had the mindset that we could do that, so obviously we're disappointed."

They may not have reached their final objective, but Streicher and fellow seniors Mike Green, A.J. Graves, Julian Betko and Pete Campbell certainly raised Butler's profile as the envy of mid-majors everywhere with championships in the 2006 NIT Season Tip-Off last season and the 2007 Great Alaska Shootout.

"That's something we're trying to do here, trying to add to the tradition that has been established over the years," Graves said. "To get paired up with Tennessee in the second round, to play a very challenging team and to put them into overtime, that's tough to do. And a lot of teams didn't get to do that."

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