Legends, first-timers, and Italian food: The casual fan’s guide to the NCAA Tournament games in Providence

And Providence is where Calipari finds himself in 2025 in his first season at Arkansas. Call it the “coach’s bracket” — Calipari will face the iconic Bill Self and Kansas on Thursday. Matt Painter, who has 20 years under his belt, leads No. 4 Purdue against High Point in a push to return to the title game.

And of course there’s Rick Pitino — UMass alum, former BU coach, and the man who led Providence to the 1987 Final Four. He hopes to bring St. John’s back to its Lou Carnesecca glory with its best seed — No. 2 — since 2000.

Here’s your guide to the eight teams playing at Providence’s Amica Mutual Pavilion in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

NCAA Tournament in Providence schedule

The Boston Globe’s guide to the Providence NCAA Tournament games

No. 15 Omaha

The Mavericks (22-12) are headed to the Big Dance for the first time after winning the Summit League tournament. Omaha, which moved to Division 1 in 2011, is coached by alum Chris Crutchfield, Summit coach of the year.

Crutchfield was hired in 2022 after working for eight years under Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger, where he helped develop Trae Young and Buddy Hield. He spent 2020-21 as the head coach at Division 2 East Central University in Oklahoma so he could coach his sons, Jalen and Josh.

The Mavericks boast Summit player of the year Marquel Sutton, a senior forward averaging 19.1 points and 8.0 rebounds.

How’s this for a strange superstition? Starting in late December, the Omaha squad began celebrating wins by banging on a trash can in the locker room .

The tradition began after a slow start to the season, with Omaha picking up just four wins in its first 13 games.

Seeking something to inspire his squad, associate head coach Kyan Brown took out his frustration on a nearby receptacle.

After winning that night’s game, the team returned to the locker room — and went after the trash can again. The crazy thing? It worked: They went 18-3 to close out the season after that moment. And they haven’t stopped.

No. 13 High Point

The Panthers (29-5) beat Winthrop in the Big South championship to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, its first conference tournament title and NCAA bid since the program moved to Division 1 in 1999.

High Point is led by Alan Huss, who was hired in 2023 and led the program to a school-record 27 wins in his first year. He’s been named Big South coach of the year two seasons running (and recently signed a contract extension, lest you assume a power-conference school might come scoop him up).

His squad, which is on a 14-game win streak, features players from France, Canada, Iceland, Australia, Croatia, and Cameroon. The Panthers are led on defense by conference defensive player of the year Juslin Bodo Bodo. Senior guard Kezza Giffa, a first-team all-conference player, is averaging 14.6 points per game. Fellow first-teamer Kimani Hamilton, a junior forward, is a finalist for the Lou Henson award, given to the top mid-major player.

Down in High Point, N.C., it just means more.

The university, which was founded in 1924, had just 1,500 students and 100 full-time faculty 20 years ago . It’s ballooned in recent years, growing to 6,300 students and 500 full-time faculty last year.

The school’s sports teams haven’t kept up with expansive growth — until now. And safe to say the campus community is excited.

High Point saw a capacity crowd — about 5,000 people — show up for Sunday’s selection show viewing party at the on-campus Qubein Arena to celebrate the men’s and women’s basketball teams making their first tournaments.

Success in the NCAA Tournament can change a university’s future — just ask Florida Gulf Coast . Could the same be in store for the Panthers?

No. 12 McNeese State

When Will Wade lost his job at LSU in 2022 for recruiting violations, he didn’t go far. In 2023, the former Harvard assistant (Wade was Tommy Amaker’s first hire when Amaker took over in 2007) headed west on I-10 to Lake Charles, La., to lead McNeese.

It’s been a success: The Cowboys have only lost eight times since he took over the program.

For the second-straight year, McNeese was the Southern Conference regular season and tournament champion. McNeese is powered by five double-digit scorers, including conference player of the year Javohn Garcia, who attended Brewster Academy and played two seasons at UMass.

Reports emerged Wednesday that Wade will be leaving at the end of this season to coach N.C. State. Can his Cowboys end his tenure with an upset?

NIL (name, image, and likeness) money is pervasive in the college basketball world, often rewarding the sport’s most-talented athletes with sponsorship deals and other bonuses.

But what if you’ve got “Aura”?

That’s the nickname for Amir Khan, the McNeese student manager, who went viral last month after being featured in a video with the team.

It’s not just his “aura” in the video that has him so popular these days — he’s got a sense of humor, too. A line from his biography on the school’s website reads: “If they kept manager stats for rebounding and wiping up wet spots on the court, I’d put up Wilt Chamberlain numbers.”

His approach to his job is paying off: Khan became the first student manager to sign an NIL deal, picking up sponsorship from Buffalo Wild Wings, TickPick, and Insomnia Cookies this month.

“Our players love Amir,” Wade said. “He’s always funny, he’s quick-witted, he’s always got something to come back and he knows everything about everything in sports. He’s a phenomenal kid.”

No. 10 Arkansas

This time last year, John Calipari was coaching Kentucky in a loss to No. 14 Oakland — one of the biggest upsets of the 2024 tournament. A few weeks later, he left Lexington without his future determined.

Arkansas quickly moved in, hiring the former national champion to try to capture some of the magic Fayetteville saw back in the early 1990s under Nolan Richardson.

The Razorbacks started 0-5 in the SEC but turned it around quickly enough to finish 8-10. Bolstered by the competitiveness of the SEC (a record 14 tournament teams in 2025), Arkansas was able to sneak in as a No. 10 seed.

Arkansas will be without its leading scorer, guard Adou Tiero, who has been out since Feb. 22. But freshman guard Boogie Fland, potential NBA draft pick, should be available after sitting out since January following thumb surgery.

John Calipari can be a polarizing figure, but New Englanders can appreciate his good taste.

When asked about his thoughts on returning to Providence, he quickly answered: “Italian city.”

He then made clear he had wasted no time getting re-acclimated.

“We already went out to Federal Hill, went under The Pineapple . Let’s go. Had a nice meal last night.”

No. 7 Kansas

Bill Self’s Kansas team has not been seeded outside the top four in the NCAA Tournament since 2000 . The Jayhawks (21-12) were ranked No. 1 to start the season and entered the year with the most-experienced team in the country.

That hasn’t helped. Playing to an 11-9 conference record and playing particularly poorly on the road (4-8), Kansas earned a No. 6 seed in the Big 12 tournament and lost to Arizona in the quarterfinals.

The Jayhawks are led by 7-foot-2-inch grad transfer Hunter Dickinson, who went to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight with Michigan. He’s averaging 17.6 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.

Jayhawk fans owe a lot to Massachusetts.

Basketball was invented by James Naismith in Springfield in 1891. Naismith, after writing down the 13 original rules, made his way to Colorado and then to the University of Kansas, where he was hired to run the chapel and teach physical education.

It was there, in 1898, that he founded the Jayhawk program and became its first head coach, setting the stage for decades of success — Kansas has made 42 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

He may be the creator of the game but Naismith, with his 55-60 record at Kansas, is the only coach in program history with a losing record.

No. 5 Clemson

Clemson looks to build off its Elite Eight appearance last year after setting a program record with 27 wins in the regular season and an 18-2 record in the ACC.

Head coach Brad Brownell was hired in 2010 and had made three tournaments in 15 years before earning a No. 6 seed in 2024. He was rewarded Wednesday with a six-year contract extension.

Chase Hunter (16.4 ppg) leads a quartet of double-digit scorers which also includes Boston College transfer Jaeden Zackery. Guard Dillon Hunter is out after breaking his hand in the ACC quarterfinals.

Or rather, one mom’s reason to root for Clemson? The Hunters.

Chase is joined on the Clemson roster by his younger brother Dillon. That must make their mother, Brandi, pretty proud — even if she’s not surprised.

Brandi is a hooper herself. A star in Minneapolis, she was part of an historic recruiting class at Georgia in the mid-1990s. She was on a Bulldog squad that went to back-to-back Final Fours in 1995 and 1996.

The Hunters father, Brice, was a standout football player at Georgia and spent some time in the NFL. He was killed in a shooting in Chicago in 2004 when he was 29.

“I had the unimaginable happen, and with that I was forced to create a life for myself and my children,” Brandi told her alma mater in 2020 . “There was so much uncertainty, but all I knew was that God would not fail me and my boys. I was determined to turn that tragedy into triumph.”

Triumph she did: Brandi Hunter-Lewis became a successful realtor, selling homes to the stars, with a robust social media following to boot .

No. 4 Purdue

Purdue lost to UConn in the championship in 2024 and lost Zach Edey to the NBA shortly after. Can Matt Painter’s squad return to the title game? The Boilermakers have lost six of their last nine, possibly setting the stage for an early exit.

But they do have Braden Smith, an All-American caliber player who is averaging 16.1 points and is the program’s all-time assists leader. The weakness comes on defense. The team’s leader in blocks, Trey Kaufman-Renn, has just nine on the season.

From Trevor Hass: In the summer of 2023, Painter traveled to Las Vegas to watch four-star recruit Travis Perry compete in the Battle of the Brands tournament. As the action unfolded, a less-heralded player unexpectedly caught his eye: Middlesex Magic star C.J. Cox.

Cox, a dynamic 6-3 combo guard from Lexington, Mass., took over and was the best player on the floor. Afterward, when his teammates and coaches mobbed him, Painter became even more intrigued. He learned that the rising senior had offers from predominantly Ivy League schools, yet none from high majors. Painter’s mind started to race, as he wondered if he had found a hidden gem on the last day of competition.

He did, and now Cox is starting for the Boilermakers — and will play in front of family and friends from back home on Thursday.

No. 2 St. John’s

St. John’s had not won the Big East regular season and the Big East tournament in the same year since 1985.

Until this year.

Rick Pitino, in his second year at St. John’s, has brought the program closer to the heights it reached in the 1980s, leaning heavily on the transfer portal to reload the roster.

That includes the Red Storm’s three leading scorers: RJ Luis Jr. (18.4 ppg), previously at UMass; Zuby Ejiofor (14.6 ppg), previously at Kansas; and Kadary Richmond (12.7 ppg), previously at Syracuse.

St. John’s has not advanced past the first weekend since 1999, and has done it just twice since 1990. Is 2025 the year?

Pitino is reviled in Boston in large part for his abysmal performance as head coach of the Celtics from 1997 to 2001. But what did him in were his comments in 2000 after a particularly difficult loss to the Raptors.

“Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans,” Pitino told the media. “Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door.”

He was not long for Boston; resigning less than a year later. But look on the bright side: His replacement, Jim O’Brien, lasted fewer than three seasons and the turmoil set the stage for Boston hiring Doc Rivers and winning its 17th championship in 2008.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.