DETROIT — With six minutes to go in Michigan State's 64-52 win over Louisville in the regional final, Tim Mowry grabbed his laptop and started searching on eBay.

He wasn't worried about jinxing the Spartans as they cruised into the Final Four at Ford Field, he said — he just wanted to make sure he would be there to see them.

"It's unbelievable. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," said Mowry, a 39-year-old die-hard Spartans fan who lives in Genesee County's Flint Township, about 55 miles northwest of Detroit. "Who would even dream that we'd have the Final Four — what a great experience and what a great event — let alone to get Michigan State in, in the year that it's here."

Tickets to the Final Four still were available from online resellers at premium prices on the eve of Saturday's national semifinals.

With Michigan State playing Connecticut just 90 miles east of the Spartans' campus in East Lansing, getting to the game — or even just to Detroit — has taken on special importance for students and the team's in-state fan base.

Michigan State is the first team to play a Final Four in its home state since Duke lost to Arkansas in the 1994 title game in Charlotte, N.C.

"We're playing so close to home that obviously we couldn't get our hands on enough tickets," said Michigan State athletics spokesman John Lewandowski.

The school's official allotment of 3,250 tickets went to athletics staff, players' guests, school officials, donors and others. That's fewer than the 4,500 tickets Michigan State got in 2005, when the Spartans went to the Final Four in St. Louis.

The NCAA also provided 400 floor tickets directly to students at each of the four participating schools (Michigan State got 79 more after a glitch snarled the distribution system).

Steven Book, 20, was one of the lucky few, picking up a ticket to all three games for $20.60.

"I am one of the biggest Spartan fans that you can find on this campus," said the junior from Rochester Hills, who plans to shave his head, don face paint and wear his lucky green jacket to cheer on his team.

But for everyone else who didn't pick up tickets last year from the NCAA — when they sold out for $170 or $140 a seat, depending on location — getting to the games is more expensive. Mowry paid $500 for a pair of tickets off eBay.

On RazorGator, the tournament's official reselling Web site, more than 300 tickets were selling Friday from as little as $341 up to more than $39,000 for a suite. On StubHub, a unit of eBay Inc., about 250 tickets were going for $300 all the way up to $50,590 for a suite.

Joe Feery, 43, started looking for a way into the games once the Spartans made it into the Final Four, and he picked up a ticket on eBay for $800. But that's almost a bargain — the Jackson man said he paid $3,000 for a ticket to Super Bowl XL at Ford Field in 2006.