While there aren’t any Massachusetts college teams dancing this year, there are plenty of players hailing from Massachusetts and around the region to keep an eye on as March rolls on. Here are the players with roots in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine that are playing the NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament.

DENVER — Michigan will be shorthanded for its NCAA Tournament opener and possibly beyond. Two reserves, Sam Walters and Justin Pippen, did not make the trip to Denver with the team. Michigan plays a first-round game against UC San Diego on Thursday night (10 p.m. ET, TBS). The winner will advance to Saturday’s second round.

The Omaha coaches and players, in turn, know what they’re up against in a St. John’s team won the school’s first Big East regular-season title since 1985 and first Big East Tournament title since 2000. Pitino, meantime, is taking his sixth different program to the NCAA Tournament.

Kellie Harper has been hired as the new women's basketball coach at Missouri, where the former coach of SEC-rival Tennessee will have the job of rebuilding a once-proud program that has not been to the NCAA Tournament in six years.

Kellie Harper has worked for the SEC Network this season. She’s taken four different programs, including Tennessee, to the NCAA Tournament.

Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper yells to her players in the first half of a first-round game against St. Louis University in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, March 18, 2023, in Knoxville, Tenn. COLUMBIA,