Butler junior guard Shelvin Mack will declare for the NBA draft without an agent, coach Brad Stevens told ESPN’s Andy Katz.

According to Stevens, Mack will test the draft process between April 24 and May 8 to see where he would fall in the first round.

Mack led the Bulldogs in scoring during the NCAA tournament.

Butler coach Brad Stevens said he will receive input from trusted sources and determine a consensus for where Shelving Mack might be drafted, if Mack leaves school early.

Mack, who averaged 20.3 points in the tournament, including games of 30, 27 and 24, could declare for the draft by the April 25 deadline and still return to school if he does not hire an agent and withdraws by May 8.

"I'll do the research and I'll collect it for him, and I'll present it to him," Stevens said. "He knows that I want what's best for him, so he knows he doesn't have to worry about me trying to persuade him to come back."

NBA labor strife and a possible lockout complicate matters.

"I've got to look at it some more," Mack said. "That's a big thing that could affect my decision."

TV ratings for Monday's NCAA championship game between Connecticut and Butler were down significantly from a year ago.

Connecticut's defense-dominated 53-41 win Monday on CBS earned an 11.7 fast national rating and 18 share.

That's down 18 percent from last year's Duke-Butler final, when the underdog Bulldogs had a chance to win it at the buzzer.

The entire tournament, with every game televised nationally for the first time, averaged a 6.4/14, up seven percent from last season.

The Final Four at Reliant Stadium established a new standard for the event's highest total attendance — 145,747.

Those numbers were much more palatable than the ones posted by Connecticut and Butler on Monday during a universally panned title game won by the Huskies 53-41.

But not even a lackluster final could dampen the enthusiasm generated in a city that hadn't hosted the Final Four in 40 years.

"This is what a showcase, what a national championship should feel like," NCAA interim executive vice president of championships Greg Shaheen said Tuesday. "It was exactly what we hoped it would be."

Which is good for Houston, since the Final Four returns in 2016.

Butler assistant Micah Shrewsberry is already in recruiting mode.

“We need to try to get a couple guys who can play anywhere in the country and then surround them with great role players,” Shrewsberry said.

“Being on these runs will help in that area, where we can stretch out in different parts of the country, and even internationally.”

Butler recently signed Jackson Aldridge, a hard-nosed scoring point guard from Sydney, Australia.

The Bulldogs signed Khyle Marshall last year out of Davie, Fla. His signing and Aldridge’s mark an important shift for Butler away from a regional approach to recruiting.

Butler’s success on the court is opening doors into recruits’ homes.

There might be something to the theory that teams shoot worse when playing in football-style domes.

Butler shot just 18.8 percent while Connecticut knocked down 34.5 percent of its shots.

Since 2003, only four national championship game participants -- Syracuse, North Carolina, Kansas, and Duke -- have shot better in the title game than they did on the season.

All nine games were played in football stadiums.

Matt Howard and Shawn Vanzant had shot 3-for-23 in the biggest game of their lives. Vanzant thought it was his fault. Howard felt no better.

And that’s when Ronald Nored, eyes red and tear-filled as well, noticed his teammates, got up, crossed the locker room and reminded everyone what this entire pursuit is about.

He pulled Shawn Vanzant up off his stool and hugged his friend, physically and emotionally attempting to lift him out of his depression.

After a few seconds, Nored stepped over to Howard and did the same. And soon enough, his teammates followed. One after the other, from the freshmen to the managers, from the benchwarmers to the starters, every last Butler Bulldog was taking a moment to remind each other, particularly those bottomed-out seniors, that this was about a lot more than some basketball game.

Coach Brad Stevens stood in that locker room, took it all in and saw the kind of miracle for which coaches strive – collective support in the lowest and rawest of moments. Kids caring about kids. Perspective and purpose on display. It may not get you a clipped net, but that’s some kind of championship in itself.

“Hard, hard to put into words,” Stevens said, his voice trailing a bit.

Statistician Nate Silver pegged Butler with a 0.9 percent chance of reaching the championship before this year’s tournament began. Meanwhile, Ken Pomeroy’s numbers had them with a 1.5 percent chance a year ago.

Multiply 0.9 percent by 1.5 percent and you get 0.0135 percent, which equates to odds of 7,406-to-1 against.

Silver notes that Duke was “only” about a 1,600-to-1 long shot to play in five consecutive Final Fours between 1988 and 1992.

Butler’s Ronald Nored turned down the opportunity to go to Harvard to instead play basketball with the Bulldogs. He was enamored with the “Butler Way,” a credo that holds defensive intensity in the highest regard.

As Nored worked on honing his shutdown skills, coach Brad Stevens gave him a New York Times Magazine article to read, “The No Stats All-Star,” by Michael Lewis. The piece chronicled how former Duke great and NBA journeyman Shane Battier went about his business, scouting opponents and guarding doggedly.

Battier made himself invaluable as a pro. Reading the story inspired Nored.

“I just thought it was really interesting the way he approached the game,” Nored said. “He guards the best player on every team. His focus and preparation for whoever he plays is unbelievable. The way that he communicates with some of the people in the organization about stats, about which way to force a guy, those things were all really cool to see because those are the same things that I’m trying to do.”

Butler assistant head coach Matthew Graves, who splits the scouting with assistants Terry Johnson and Micah Shrewsberry, called Kemba Walker "without a doubt the best individual player in terms of importance to his team that we've faced."

Shutting him down is almost an impossible task. Slowing him down isn't much easier.

Yes, they're concerned about Walker. Saying they're obsessed would be stretching it.

"You really just can't focus the defense all on him," said guard Shawn Vanzant. "They've got excellent other guards on the team who can hurt you. (Jeremy) Lamb's a very good player. It's going to be a team collective to guard their three guards."

Butler guards Ronald Nored and Shawn Vanzant certainly will get a shot, and the assistants have prepared extra tape so the players can spend all Sunday night studying where Walker likes to go when he gets the ball on the left baseline if they want.