PROVIDENCE — State tourism officials have been angling to draw a big fish for awhile and, come March, they’ll net one — and a couple of smaller ones at the same time.

Thousands of basketball fans are expected in Rhode Island in mid-March for the opening rounds of the NCAA’s men’s college basketball tournament — the same week the city will play host to the New England Saltwater Fishing Show and a Mary Kay cosmetics convention

It’s enough to make people blush.

“There’s a lot going on,” said Martha Sheridan, in a wild understatement.

Sheridan, president and chief executive officer of the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau, has been leading a group of civic officials that’s spent months planning how to accommodate the tournament amid everything else going on.

It’s the first time since 2000 the city has been the site of a college-level tournament and the first time since 1996 that it was part of March Madness — the tourney that drives basketball fanatics and casual fans alike into a frenzy each spring.

The games take place on March 18 and March 20, amid a week when Providence also hosts a St. Patrick’s Day parade and road race, the two business conventions, a cheerleading competition and top-flight performances at the Providence Performing Arts Center and Trinity Rep theater.

Oh, by the way, there’s a “WaterFire” on March 19.

The NCAA tourney is the kind of event civic leaders had in mind when the state anted up more than $80 million to renovate the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and connect it to the Rhode Island Convention Center.

“This is a huge opportunity for us to play on the national stage,” said Kristen Adamo, another visitors bureau executive, during a tourney planning session Tuesday morning in Providence.

Gauging the economic impact for the state at this point is tough, convention executives said, as it depends on which teams are chosen to play in Providence. Prospects for the long term also are hard to quantify, but the planning group is trying to make sure the state doesn’t miss its chance to impress the basketball fans.

“These are really big fish,” said Sheridan.

One team with an outside shot at playing in the city is right down in South County — the University of Rhode Island stands at 19-3 and is third in the Atlantic 10 conference as the regular season nears its end. The team has a good chance at making it to one of the eight opening-round sites.

Drawing marquee teams with loyal followings could bring 10,000 or more people to the state for the six-game set — four games on Thursday and two on Saturday. Teams from Syracuse, Duke or the University of Kentucky have hundreds of fans who are “serial” tournament attendees. Whenever, or wherever, their team gets “bracketed” — in tourney parlance — they go, too.

The NCAA designated eight hotels in and around Providence as homes-away-from-home for the eight teams who will play here.

That setup is going to spread around the fans, their money and the potential headaches.

The primary issue is traffic as people try to get to and from the city with highway construction changing driving routes by the week.

“That’s a make-it-or-break-it” issue, Sheridan said.

pgrimald@projo.com