Growing up as a lifelong UCLA fan and going to school in Indiana, Ryan Gesas knew he had to be there when his UCLA Bruins took on Michigan State in The First Four.

Gesas had no luck when looking for tickets to the game, only finding $400 tickets that were about $80 a couple hours before he considered purchasing. Frustrated, Gesas knew he had to find a way to be at the game without spending $400 on tickets.

Gesas, who graduated from Calabasas High School in 2018, took to Twitter to find an alternate way to get tickets. UCLA Athletic Director, Martin Jarmond, responded to Gesas via Twitter, offering him two tickets to the game against Michigan State.

“Twitter was the only possibility. Instagram or emailing probably would not work, so I just took my shot,” said Gesas. 

Gesas was obliged to take this opportunity, so he and a friend took the two hour trip from Bloomington to Mackey Arena, home of the Purdue Boilermakers. 

For 40 minutes, Gesas and his friend Dean Kubersky cheered as loud as they could for the Bruins. Besides players’ families, Gesas and Kubersky were some of the only UCLA fans there, due to East Lansing being much closer to Indiana than Westwood.

The cheering for the Bruins paid off, as UCLA beat Michigan State in overtime, where they then would face BYU in the Round of 64. After five games and two overtimes, Gesas is still the Bruins’ good luck charm. He has been at every single game during the tournament and has watched the Bruins upset #1 seed Michigan, #2 seed Alabama, and #6 seed BYU. Gesas will be at UCLA’s Final Four matchup against the undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday. 

Gesas and Jammond have their own superstitions. Gesas rocks the Russell Westbrook UCLA jersey, unwashed since March 18, as well as posts the same Tweet holding up his tickets before each game. After each game, Jammond tweets a video of him and Gesas celebrating a Bruins win.

After Kubersky had to go home to New Jersey, one of Gesas’s best friends and true Bruin fan, Elijah Wolf, flew in from Washington D.C. to accompany the second ticket and experience the UCLA wins over Alabama and Michigan. 

“It has probably been the best two weeks of my life and the game against Michigan was probably the best game I’ve ever been at,” said Gesas.