Butler learned its 2017 NCAA Tournament destination and opponent Sunday night as the NCAA Men's Basketball Committee released the official bracket. Butler will travel to Milwaukee, Wis., as a No. 4 seed, facing off with No. 13 seed Winthrop on Thursday. Based off arguably its strongest regular season resume in program history, the No. 4 seed is the highest ever for Butler.

Butler's previous high seed was a No. 5 seed in both 2007 and 2010.

Winthrop is 26-6 on the season and won the automatic berth from the Big South Conference by winning their postseason tournament. If Butler were to win on Thursday, the Bulldogs would play the winner of No. 5 seed Minnesota and No. 12 seed Middle Tennessee State. Butler is based out of the Memphis Regional with North Carolina as the No. 1 seed.

The Bulldogs secure their third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth under third-year coach Chris Holtmann. Butler is 23-8 on the season and used a 12-6 BIG EAST record to finish second in the conference standings. The Bulldogs are ranked No. 18 in this week's AP poll and have been ranked in both the AP and Coaches Poll Top 25 each week since Nov. 28.

The BIG EAST had 70 percent of its membership make the 2017 NCAA Tournament field as Butler joined Villanova, Creighton, Seton Hall, Providence, Marquette, and Xavier.

Butler's season-long resume includes a 14-5 record against 12 teams that made the 2017 tournament field. The Bulldogs played NCAA Tournament teams in 19 of their 31 games this season, including non-conference wins over Arizona, Cincinnati, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Vermont, and Bucknell. Butler is 16-5 against teams ranked in the RPI Top 100, with 10 of those wins coming against the Top 50. Those 10 wins against the RPI Top 50 trail only Villanova (12), Duke (12), North Carolina (11), and Florida State (11).

Butler has been in the field for nine of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments, only missing out in 2012 and 2014. This is Butler's 15^th NCAA Tournament appearance and the Bulldogs have a 21-14 all-time mark in tournament play. After appearing in the 1962 NCAA Tournament, 14 of the appearances have come in the last 21 years.
Butler and Winthrop have never met as men's basketball opponents, but Holtmann is familiar with the Big South foe from his days at Gardner-Webb. In Holtmann's three seasons guiding the Gardner-Webb program, he had a 2-4 record against Winthrop, which is coached by Pat Kelsey, a former player and assistant coach at Xavier.

The Bulldogs are 9-1 in their last 10 first round contests in the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs' most recent first round loss came in 2009.

The NCAA will announce tip times and television assignments later Sunday evening.

The Butler Ticket Office will have information on tickets Monday morning.