(Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

After cruising to a Big East Tournament title Saturday night at Madison Square Garden with a 74-60 win over Creighton, Villanova was a boastful and confident bunch, looking to become the first team in 10 years to win back-to-back national championships.

If the Wildcats are going to get there, it’ll be with their version of the Big Three which carried them to victory against a very formidable Blue Jays team. Senior guard Josh Hart, senior forward Kris Jenkins (the 2016 national championship game hero) and sophomore guard Jalen Brunson combined for 60 of Nova’s 74 points and form the nation’s most fearsome trio. Hart scored 29 points on 9-of-18 shooting on Saturday and was named tournament MVP, becoming just the third player in the conference’s 35-year history to win multiple tournament MVPs after Patrick Ewing and Peyton Siva. He’ll be on the shortlist for the major player of the year trophies in the sport.

Yet for Hart and this team, the journey’s just begun. Asked after the game if Villanova deserved to be the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, head coach Jay Wright said “probably.” Talking about Hart, Wright said that “he’s the best, most complete player in the country.”

Nova has earned the right to say things like this. The Wildcats haven’t had a postseason loss since last year’s Big East final against Seton Hall, a loss they barely avenged in Friday’s semifinal. Villanova is the first defending national champion to ever enter an NCAA Tournament with at least 31 wins, per ESPN Stats & Info. It has the fewest number of losses going into a tournament as defending champs — three — since Duke in 2001-02, per ESPN.

When asked by The Comeback what the team’s biggest obstacle is going forward, Wright said it’s about staying humble and dealing with all the attention the team’s going to receive over the coming weeks.

“We’re going to enjoy this.” Wright told The Comeback about the conference championship, “Then we’re going to go home and it’s going to be Selection Sunday and start dealing with all the repeat, 1 seed, all that. Handling all that is going to be the biggest obstacle.”

If Wright is correct and Villanova gets the top overall seed — and the Wildcats have earned it — then the team is going to be a very popular Final Four team based on where it’ll have to play. A top overall seed would mean that the Wildcats will be the 1 seed in the East region, with the first two rounds played in Buffalo and the potential Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games back in New York City at Madison Square Garden.

It’s extremely plausible, if not likely, that Villanova won’t have to leave New York state before the Final Four in Phoenix.

For Hart and Jenkins, this is their last run at another national title. It’s something that their younger teammates like Brunson don’t take lightly. Before the Creighton game, Wright stressed to his players that he didn’t want the seniors to go out the way they did last year at the Big East Tournament, and the team took that to heart.

“We have a group of seniors who lead us but also want to get better every day,” Brunson said.

Hart said that he’s got one month of his college basketball career left, and he’s focused on making the most of it and not looking back and reflecting on his four years just yet.

“I don’t spend time with those other guys,” Wright said of Hart, “but I don’t see anybody that does everything like he does.”

And while Villanova is one of the nation’s elite teams, there’s still room for improvement and growth. The Wildcats are 289th in rebounds per game and play one of the slowest tempos among top teams in the country at 63.9 possessions per 40 minutes, according to KenPom.com.

But to be honest, pointing out Villanova’s flaws is nothing but nitpicking.

The Wildcats have the guard play, the experience and will likely have a very easy travel schedule in the east region. Another Final Four appearance will likely be theirs for the taking. So this Villanova team — confident yet not brash, poised yet not pompous, keenly aware of its shortcomings and flaws — now appears ready for whatever challenge will face it in its quest for a second consecutive national title.

One thing is now apparent: This 2017 NCAA men’s basketball tournament will go through Nova, which has more than earned that right.

About Shlomo Sprung

Shlomo Sprung is a writer and columnist for Awful Announcing. He's also a senior contributor at Forbes and writes at FanSided, SI Knicks, YES Network and other publications.. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, Business Insider, Sporting News and Major League Baseball. You should follow him on Twitter.