For the first time in 298 days, Villanova lost.

Butler, the No. 18 team in the nation, played amazing defense and used its home-court advantage to pull off a 66-58 upset of the top-ranked Wildcats on Wednesday night. In winning, Butler (13-2) ends Villanova's 20-game win streak, which was the longest in the nation. Gonzaga and Baylor, both of which are 14-0, now own the longest streak in the country.

Here's what you need to know, four takeaways from a pretty fun night in Indianapolis:

1. Don't think less of Villanova, think more of the Big East



This tweet is exactly right.



No team in the country would be expected to win consecutive games at Creighton and Butler. — Ken Pomeroy (@kenpomeroy) January 5, 2017

No team in the country. Not Kentucky, not Duke, not UCLA, not Baylor. Nobody would be reasonably expected to take W's in Omaha and Indianapolis in a back-to-back situation. Creighton, which fell in a good one to Villanova (14-1) on Dec. 31, is a top-15 team. Butler is a top-20 team. It's a tough ask for any group in America to go into both of those buildings in less than a week's time and come out with two wins. Villanova is still a title contender, and this loss isn't reason for any concern whatsoever in the big picture.

If anything, it helps the Big East's reputation. It's not a league that Villanova is just going to steamroll through. The Wildcats have won this conference three years going, and that could happen again, but this year will be different because Butler, Creighton and Xavier should all compete for No. 5 seeds at worst.



2. Butler beats you in weird ways



Butler senior transfer Kethan Savage scored a career-high 13 points off the bench. He came into Wednesday night averaging 3.8. Andrew Chrabascz, a walking definition of the intrepid-college-basketball-player ideal, also had 13. Kamar Baldwin's steal of Player of the Year candidate Josh Hart and subsequent layup with 56 seconds remaining gave Butler a 60-54 lead and a cushion that held to the end of the game.

Baldwin came up big when it mattered. The steal was daring and, to me, the biggest play of the game. Hart also had his worst night of the season, finishing with 13 points on 3-of-11 shooting and four fouls. That Baldwin steal was his only turnover, though.

Also, Butler was perfect from the foul line: 15 for 15. It was an unusually good performance from the stripe, as the Bulldogs don't rate in the top 100 in team foul-shooting percentage.

3. This isn't the biggest win in Butler's regular-season history

The win is Butler's second in its history over a No. 1-ranked team. The Bulldogs knocked off top-ranked Indiana in 2012. Given that Indiana is the program in its state, and Villanova entered this game as a favorite, an undefeated team that's the reigning national champs, well it's a toss-up for bigger regular-season outcome.

Either way, Butler is full-blown Big East material at this point. It's been remarkable to see how this program has gone from Horizon League member to Horizon League king to back-to-back Final Fours to going to the A-10 to joining the Big East.

That transition is one most programs could not navigate with half as much success as Butler has been able to. This latest win is the latest example of how good a coach Chris Holtmann is, but also how stable and respectable a program Butler is. The Bulldogs have turned into an undeniable top-30 institution in college basketball.

4. Villanova falling in the polls is a mortal lock



Why? Let's look at the top five teams in this week's AP poll.

1. Villanova: Should win its home game against Marquette on Saturday, moving VU to 15-1. The loss came on the road against a ranked team that projects as No. 4 seed right about now, if not a No. 3.

2. Baylor: Undefeated but it does have a home game against tricky Oklahoma State. If it loses that game, Villanova would have a better claim to No. 1 because it's loss came on the road. But even then ...

3. Kansas: Has a home game against probably-good Texas Tech. Thing is, it's almost impossible to beat Kansas at Kansas. Mark it as a win. KenPom has KU at 80 percent to pull it out. If that happens, the Jayhawks will leap over Villanova.

4. UCLA: Home to Cal on Thursday, home to Stanford on Sunday. To me, it would be a stunner if UCLA lost either of these games. If it wins both, it will be 16-1 and probably jump Villanova.

5. Gonzaga: Now this is interesting. Gonzaga is still undefeated but it has road games against 11-4 San Francisco (Thursday) and 9-5 Portland (Saturday). GU could get through that without a scratch, but even if it does, I'm not totally convinced AP voters will drop Villanova to worse than fourth after a loss at Butler. We'll see.