VILLANOVA, Pa. – A special Saturday night is on tap for Villanova as it hosts St. John's and welcomes home its Men's Basketball Alumni. Tipoff for this consequential BIG EAST clash is set for just after 8 p.m. at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
 
Tickets for this battle between teams tied for second place in the BIG EAST (5-1) are on sale and may be purchased by clicking the link at the top of this page. More than 50 Villanova Basketball alumni are expected Saturday night and will be introduced to the crowd at halftime by Wildcats' radio analyst and former point guard, Whitey Rigsby, Villanova class of 1978.
 
Both squads scored impressive victories Tuesday night. The Wildcats (14-3 overall) posted an 88-82 victory at Providence while the Red Storm (12-5 overall) downed Marquette 92-68 at Madison Square Garden.
 
"I think if we can clean up a little bit of our ball screen defense," noted Villanova head coach Kevin Willard after the game at Amica Mutual Pavilion, "that (would help). That's more on me – I'm trying to be a little bit too fancy. I like where we're at. We still have a lot of room to improve. We're young."
 
Junior guard Tyler Perkins notched big second half baskets as part of a 15-point, eight rebound, effort against the Friars.
 
Fifth year guard Devin Askew has been instrumental in Nova's last two wins, both on the road at Providence and Marquette. He contributed 20 points with seven assists on Tuesday night.
 
St. John's has earned impressive conference road wins too – at Butler, Georgetown and Creighton – and each of its five league wins have been by double digits. Its only loss came at home to Providence (77-71). BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor paces the attack with averages of 16.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. Former Providence standout Bryce Hopkins is second on the team in scoring at 13.2 ppg.
 
This Red Storm team has been more explosive than the group that led it to the NCAA Tournament last season, averaging 86.0 points per game and sinking .358 of its 3-Point Field Goal attempts.
 
Of course, the Wildcats play well at pace too. Villanova is 12-0 thus far in 2025-26 when scoring 70 or more points in a game.
 
These teams split two meetings last season, with the Wildcats earning a Top 10 win on Feb. 12, 2025, when Perkins sank a 3-pointer with nine seconds left that proved to be the difference at Finneran Pavilion.
 
Willard began his coaching career on the staff of St. John's head coach Rick Pitino with the NBA's Boston Celtics and later served on his staff at Louisville before beginning his head coaching career at Iona.
 
NBC Sports Network and Peacock will handle the national broadcast of this one with Paul Burmeister and Tarik Turner on the call. Ryan Fannon and Rigsby will have the Villanova broadcast on the Villanova Sports Radio Network (Fox Sports Radio Philadelphia, iHeart App, SiriusXM channel 387 and the TuneIn App.
 
This is the Wildcats' second appearance of 2025-26, but the first as the host. Villanova defeated Penn 90-63 in the title game of the Big Five Classic on Dec. 6. One more contest remains to be played at Xfinity Mobile Arena. That takes place on Feb. 21 when Connecticut will be in South Philadelphia.