SAN ANTONIO -- Can we just hand out the national championship trophy now?

It would be presumptuous and unsportsmanlike, knowing what's at stake after Villanova's thrashing of Kansas on Saturday: An all-new "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" is on Monday night and, frankly, a lot of us don't want to miss it.

The result of a Villanova-Michigan champ game seems preordained. So much so that I asked the ordained, Villanova team chaplain Fr. Rob Hagan, do the Wolverines have a, well, prayer?

"Sure, on [the day after Easter] everybody's got a prayer," he said.

Keep telling yourself that, Fr. Rob. The basketball world knows better. We've basically seen what we're about to see. Not only Saturday, but all season. We don't need a 95-79 clubbing of Kansas in the night's second national semifinal game to validate anything.

Moe Wagner? How about begging for no mo' Nova?

Look, I could sit here and blab on about ball screens and open looks, but let's be honest: Nova didn't exactly pull this performance out of their backsides.

They were No. 1 for part of the season. The Wildcats came into the tournament as the No. 2 overall seed.

They have won five tournament games by a combined 89 points. God bless West Virginia and Texas Tech, who each came within 12.

All of it was not exactly unexpected.

"This is our best offensive team," said Jay Wright, in his 17th season at the school. "We've had some good ones. This is definitely our best." 

Still, when the nation's No. 1 scoring team does it again with such suddenness and ferocity, there is no other conclusion to reach than it's going to carry over to Monday night.

To put Villanova's barrage in perspective: Thirty years ago Kansas won the national championship making 78 3-pointers all season. Nova has made 42 in this tournament alone, or one every 4.7 minutes.   

Nova has had two single-digit outcomes since Valentine's Day -- a six-point loss to Creighton and a one-point overtime loss to Seton Hall. Everything else has been pretty much a blowout.

Let's cut to the chase: Nova hasn't been challenged in the tournament and probably won't be Monday night.

Michigan might be a nice anti-Cinderella story. 

Villanova is an antidote to cliffhanger basketball.

To relive the carnage, Nova made eight of its first 12 shots, five of them 3s. Shortly thereafter, in a 2-minute, 15-second span, it knocked down four consecutive 3s.

Kansas was down, 22-4.

It never got up.

I asked Nova's Eric Paschall and Donte DiVincenzo the last time they could remember getting smacked in the mouth like that at the beginning of a game.

Paschall paused for about four seconds before saying, "Uh, I don't know. I just don't know."

DiVincenzo replied, "We've had a couple of times this year."

Wait, 22-4?

"Not necessarily like that," he said.

I rest my case, while Kansas' season rests in peace.

"These guys have done that before," Fr. Rob said. "They will go out there and make a run and then the challenge the coaches put to them is, then, 'Don't back off.' ''

National player of the year Jalen Brunson had 18 and was a bit player. Six Wildcats were in double figures. Brunson had been on so many podiums accepting national honors lately he should have been running for office.

"Thank the Lord," he remembered thinking when the game finally tipped. "I was not annoyed, but I wanted to get to this game."

Then he and the Wildcats played like it. How hot was Villanova? Glad you asked, Bracket Breath.

  • The biggest number of the night -- 68,257 -- was actually the attendance, not the number of 3s canned by the Wildcats. 
  • The precise number -- 18 -- were a Final Four record, smashing the previous mark by five. 
  • Nova was so hot from outside, it shot a simply unacceptable 18 of 25 from inside the arc. See what I did there? 
  • I'm pretty sure Jay Wright's suit sunk a 3 at some point. 
  • Wherever he was Saturday, Kris Jenkins probably knocked one down, too. 
  • The points were coming so fast and furious, the ribbon scoreboards at the Alamodome shorted out for a period of time in the second half. 
  • So hot that if this had been happy hour, the Wildcats would have been ushered out of the bar for being overserved. 

"Bartender, make it a triple!" 

Paschall scored a career-high 24, tying the mark for second-most accurate game in Final Four history. In making 10 of 11 from the field, he joined Sean May (North Carolina), Billy Thompson (Louisville) and Jerry Lucas (Ohio State). 

Not bad for a transfer from Fordham. 

The Wildcats didn't shoot a free throw until 8:48 remained in the game. They didn't have to. When you're making everything, and the other team isn't pushing back, there is no conflict to officiate.

It's almost a sin these Wildcats have to take a day off before Monday. Asked what he will do on Easter Sunday, Paschall responded, "Hydrate." 

That's either the most boring answer ever or a subtle warning: There might be another flood of 3s on the way.