(This post has been updated with Monday's rankings and national polls.)

The Bulldogs will close out 2019 by opening BIG EAST play Tuesday night. While hundreds of thousands will ring in the New Year in Times Square, Butler and St. John's will be just across the East River for the BIG EAST opener at Carnesecca Arena in Queens, N.Y. 

The scheduled 7:30 p.m. start means the match-up will be NCAA Division I men's basketball's final tip of the decade.  

Butler, ranked No. 11 and No. 10 in this week's national polls and No. 4 in the NCAA NET rankings, posted an impressive 12-1 mark in non-conference play. St. John's enters at 11-2. 

GAME 14:  #10/11 Butler (12-1) at rv/-- St. John's (11-2) 
Tuesday, Dec. 31;  7:30PM
Carnesecca Arena; Queens, N.Y.
TV:  FS1 - Dave Sims (@TheDaveSimsShow) & Jim Spanarkel
RADIO:  93.5/107.5/1070 - @MarkMinner & Nick Gardner (@n_gardner)
TuneIn Radio App, Sirius 211, XM 201, SiriusXM Internet 964

Full Notes (PDF)

THE SERIES:
Butler Leads, 7-6
Streak: St. John's, W1
In New York: St. John's Leads, 5-2
First Meeting: St. John's, 78-68, 3/13/58 (NIT; Madison Square Garden)
Last Meeting: St. John's, 77-73 (OT), 2/12/19 (Queens, N.Y.)

• Butler is fourth nationally, allowing opponents only an average of 53.6 points per game.
• Butler owns the nation's longest streak of non-conference home wins at 58.
• Seven of Butler's 13 non-conference games this season have come against power conference opponents. All are KenPom Top 80 teams.
• Butler is committing only 10.4 turnovers per game, which is sixth nationally.
• This is Butler's sixth 12-1 start since 2001-02. Prior to that, the last 12-1 start was 1930-31, Tony Hinkle's fifth season coaching Butler. 
• Butler's opponents have hit only 37.3 percent of their shots, the 15th-best defensive effort in the nation.
• Jordan Tucker's career-high of 24 points came against St. John's Jan. 19, 2019; Kamar Baldwin had 30 in the same game.
• Derrik Smits led the Bulldogs with 16 points in Saturday's win over Louisiana-Monroe, his first time in double figures as a Bulldog.
• Butler last played a Mike Anderson-coached team in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament, a 79-62 win over Arkansas.
• Butler's 1.4 assist/turnover ratio is 15th nationally; individually, Aaron Thompson's 3.26 A/TO ratio is tenth in the NCAA.
• Sean McDermott has hit multiple three-pointers in five straight games.
• Baldwin tied season-highs with eight rebounds and six assists vs. Louisiana-Monroe Saturday.
• Only four of Butler's 13 opponents have reached 60 points. 
• The Bulldogs are shooting 48 percent from the field, which leads the BIG EAST and is 28th nationally.
• Baldwin has moved into tenth place on Butler's career scoring list; he now has 1,634 points.
• Thompson now has 335 career assists, eighth on Butler's career list. 
• Butler's No. 10 ranking in the coaches poll this week is the program's highest since Dec. 28, 2015 (also ranked No. 10). 
• The Bulldogs had four players in double figures in the Dec. 21 win over Purdue, the fourth game this season Butler has done that.

ON THE DEFENSIVE: Butler limited Louisiana-Monroe to 36 points in Saturday's win to close the non-conference portion of the schedule. The 36 points were the fewest allowed by Butler since an 87-33 win over IU-South Bend Nov. 22, 2008. The Bulldogs held ULM to 14-of-60 shooting (23.3 percent). In doing so, Butler moved from 46th to 15th in the national rankings for field goal percentage defense, now allowing opponents to shoot at a 37.3 percent clip this season. 

• Only four Butler opponents have scored 60 or more points; Butler has also limited four opponents to 50 or fewer points.  
• Only three of Butler's opponents have registered more assists than turnovers (Stanford, Ole Miss, Florida). 
• Only two of Butler's opponents have shot better than 44 percent from the field (Missouri, Stanford). 
• Butler has limited opponents to 27.8-percent shooting from three-point range, the 30th-best defensive effort nationally.

ONE YEAR AGO: Butler and St. John's split a pair of match-ups last season with each team winning on its home court. The Bulldogs won, 80-71, Jan. 19 at Hinkle Fieldhouse, going 11-of-25 from three-point range. Jordan Tucker his six three-pointers en route to a career-high 24 points. Kamar Baldwin had 30 points.

St. John's won an overtime contest, 77-73, Feb. 12 in Queens. Mustapha Heron had 28 points to lead the Red Storm, while the Bulldogs went only 8-of-33 from long range. 

NOTES FROM THE NON-CONFERENCE:
• Butler ran its non-conference home winning streak to 58 games, the longest active streak in the nation. 
• Butler's non-conference schedule included seven power conference opponents. Only two of those seven power conference match-ups came at Hinkle Fieldhouse (Minnesota, Florida).
• All seven of Butler's power conference opponents finished the non-conference portion of the schedule ranked among the KenPom Top 80.
• Butler's only non-conference loss came on the road at Baylor Dec. 10 (53-52). The Bulldogs limited Baylor to 19 points and 24-percent shooting in the second half, nearly overcoming a 16-point deficit.
• Butler was Purdue's only non-conference opponent to out-rebound the Boilermakers (36-30); the Bulldogs were also the first team to score 70 points vs. Purdue in 2019-20.
• Butler held Florida to 6-of-26 shooting from behind the arc in the Bulldogs' win Dec. 7. 
• Kamar Baldwin scored a season-high 31 points on 11-of-16 shooting, leading Butler to a road win over Ole Miss Dec. 3. The senior matched a career-high with four three-pointers, and the 31 points were one shy of his season-high. 
• Baldwin earned MVP honors at the 2019 Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, leading the Bulldogs to the title with 22 points in the championship game win over Stanford Nov. 26. Seventeen of those points came in the final 8:34 of the contest, including the game-winner with five seconds remaining. 
• The Hall of Fame Classic is Butler's seventh in-season tournament championship since 2001.
• Butler began its regular season opener vs. IUPUI Nov. 6 with eight available players. After Baldwin and Campbell Donovan were injured within the first five minutes of the contest, the Bulldogs played six players for the final 35 minutes of the 80-47 win. 

HANDLE WITH CARE: Butler is committing only 10.4 turnovers per game, which is the sixth-best mark nationally. Butler opened the season with five consecutive single-digit turnover games, including a season-low six in the Nov. 9 win over New Orleans. The Bulldogs have committed 10 or fewer turnovers in seven games this season.

NEVER TOO EARLY TO LOOK AHEAD: Butler has signed the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history, a group that was ranked in the Top 15 nationally by both Rivals and 247sports on National Signing Day Nov. 13. 

The five-member signing class includes guards Myles Tate (Roebuck, S.C.) and Chuck Harris (Washington, D.C.), as well as forwards Carlos "Scooby" Johnson (Benton Harbor, Mich.), JaKobe Coles (Denton, Texas) and Myles Wilmoth (Barrington, R.I.).

ON DECK: The Bulldogs have been announced as part of the 2020 Fort Myers Tip-Off field, where they will be joined by Colorado, South Florida and Wisconsin in the third-annual Tournament on Nov. 23-25, 2020. The BIG EAST schedule will move to 20 conference games in 2020-21 as UConn re-joins the league. Butler's non-conference schedule will also include Indiana (Crossroads Classic), a Big Ten opponent as part of the Gavitt Games, and a Big 12 foe as part of the BIG EAST-Big 12 Battle.