Tuesday tip-off: Villanova faces St. John's in old-time Big East clash

Setting up the day in college basketball:

Best bet: An old-school Big East battle takes center stage for the night's lone top-25 showdown as No. 8 Villanova heads up to the Big Apple to meet No. 24 St. John's (9 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1).

The Red Storm are off to a 0-2 start in the rugged league with setbacks against Seton Hall and Butler. The Wildcats were victimized by the Pirates themselves last time out for their first loss overall of the season. St. John's relies on G D'Angelo Harrison (20.3 ppg) to handle the scoring duties while letting paint protector extraordinaire Chris Obekpa (8.4 rpg, 3.9 bpg) clean up on the defensive end.

Villanova has a lot of scoring options. The system runs more smoothly when PG Ryan Arcidiacono is hitting from the outside, but lately he has not been with only 10 made three-pointers on 48 attempts for the year.

Number of the day: 4. The Big 12 is far from alone in its numerically incorrect moniker in the modern era of conference jumping and realignment. But the Large Dozen-minus-two doesn't take a back seat to many in terms of the qualities of its teams. Four Big 12 squads remain in the Paste BN Sports coaches poll this week. No. 10 Texas heads the group that also includes No. 16 Iowa State, No. 18 Oklahoma and No. 22 Baylor. The foursome have something else in common — they are the next four opponents for 11-2 Oklahoma State. The huge challenge or opportunity, take your pick, for the Cowboys begins Tuesday night at Iowa State (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

Days until Selection Sunday: 68.