Orange ya glad Howie Hoops has returned?

WELCOME back for Year XIII. I assume that Jim Boeheim will be on the sideline for chapter XXXIII, too.

Syracuse (+3) over Wake Forest: Boeheim is looking at a second straight season without a trip to the NCAA Tournament, but the 78year-old Orange coach hasn’t lost the first game of an ACC Tournament since the 2017 event in Brooklyn, where he infamously decried: “There’s no value to playing in Greensboro. None.” He returns to the longtime ACC base with a team four days removed from toppling the Demon Deacons, whose struggles against the Orange zone — featuring seven turnovers by ACC Player of the Year Tyree Appleby — will return with a quick turnaround.

St. John’s (-5.5) over Butler: Madison Square Garden will help. A matchup with the Big East’s worst offense matters more for a Red Storm defense that forced the Bulldogs into 22 turnovers in a 16-point victory in Queens. Disaster looms in Round 2 for a St. John’s squad that has gone 2-13 in Quad 1 and 2 games this season, but Mike Anderson’s latest underwhelming season should add one more soft win (St. John’s has gone 15-1 in Quad 3 and 4 games).

DePaul (+6.5) over Seton Hall: It’s tough to pick against Shaheen Holloway in March — the firstyear Pirates coach went 8-3 in MAAC Tournament play at Saint Peter’s — but the Blue Demons stayed within five points in both losses to Seton Hall despite 40-plus percent 3-point shooters Umoja Gibson and Javan Johnson combining to go 8-for-29 from deep. DePaul’s leading scorers — who led the team to upsets of Xavier and Villanova — should fare better in a house-money affair, with the pressure squarely on a Seton Hall roster whose tournament hopes have faded with five losses in the past seven games.

Villanova (-11) over Georgetown: Patrick Ewing will always have 1984. He will always have the improbable 2021 Big East title run. But his final two seasons at his alma mater will make it hard for him to get another shot to be a head coach again. After Ewing has lost 37 of 39 Big East games in the past two seasons, the Knicks legend’s final game with Georgetown will come at his longtime home. While the Wildcats have begun to find their form late in their first season under Kyle Neptune, the Hoyas have lost their past two games by a total of 60 points. Georgetown won just one opening-round game in Ewing’s previous five seasons.

2011-22 record: 319-283-9