Two city schools are in action today/tonight, with Your Villanova Wildcats taking on George Mason this afternoon at 2 in the first round of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan, P.R., and Your La Salle Explorers battling host South Carolina tonight at 9:30 in the opening round of the Charleston Classic. Both games, incidentally, are being televised regionally on ESPNU.

‘Nova (2-0) has beaten Farleigh Dickinson and Penn, and in George Mason (2-0) it gets a team with wins over Liberty and Dartmouth. The Patriots are young — they have just one senior on the roster — but as this preview at VUhoops.com notes, they do have one of the top recruiting classes in the country among mid-majors. Should ‘Nova win, the ‘Cats will play either No. 18/21 Dayton or No. 21/19 Georgia Tech in tomorrow’s second round. Indiana-Mississippi and Boston U.-Kansas State are the tourney’s other two games, and the complete bracket can be found here. The Wildcats will be without freshman forward Mouphtaou Yarou, who flew home earlier today after contracting a viral infection, according to ESPN.com. A cynic might say Yarou’s immune system was compromised because he’s older than Jay Wright. But we’re not cynics. And in all seriousness, here’s hoping for a speedy recovery.

La Salle (1-0), which had beaten Hampton at home in its opener, gets a Gamecocks team that’s 2-0, with blowout wins over Alabama A&M and Georgia Southern. South Carolina, which went 21-10 a year ago and tied for the SEC East title, was picked to finish fourth in that division this time around. Four of their projected starters are 6-5 or taller, but 5-9 senior guard Devan Downey is an All-America candidate who was also tabbed as first-team preseason all-SEC. The winner gets either Davidson or South Florida tomorrow, and Tulane-Miami (Fla). and UNC-Wilmington-Penn State are the other two matchups. The complete Charleston Classic bracket can be found here.

Links: A look at George Mason [VUhoops.com]
Puerto-Rico Tip-Off bracket [puertoricotipoff.com]
Yarou will not play in Puerto Rico [ESPN.com]
Doubts about Yarou’s age? Still? [BIG FIVE POST]
Charleston Classic bracket [charlestonclassic.com]