KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Like every Michigan men’s basketball fan in the country, Kinesiology senior Sam Rosin has been waiting a long time to cheer on his favorite team in the NCAA Tournament.

During his freshman year at the University, Rosin, a life-long basketball fan, promised himself that if the Wolverines made the field of 65, he would go to the games “no matter what.”

It almost happened during Rosin’s first year in Ann Arbor — but the basketball season ended in a heartbreaking and bid-erasing loss to Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.

His dream of traveling to March Madness grew further from reality the next season, as former Michigan coach Tommy Amaker was fired after his sixth NCAA-less campaign.

And last year’s dismal season seemed to confirm that while Rosin was in school, the Wolverines would not be dancing. This season, many fans shared Michigan coach John Beilein’s sentiments when he said at the Selection Sunday festivities at Crisler Arena, “When you go 10-22, you don’t expect (an NCAA Tournament bid). Looking at the schedule, we were just hoping to beat Michigan Tech.”

The Wolverines did top the Huskies in the first game of the season — then went on to claim the program’s first Tournament bid in 11 seasons.

“Going into this year, I was like, ‘I know we’re going to be good next year,” Rosin said Saturday, while sitting in the Michigan student section and anxiously awaiting the Wolverines’ second-round matchup with Oklahoma. “So, we all just thought that we’d be gone by the time they were really good. This is just the best possible thing that I could have wished for, making it to the second round of the NCAAs.”

Armed with a maize-and-blue and mullet-style wig, a Michigan jersey, a friend who had no more than $80 available for the trip and enough patience to make the 12-hour drive to the Sprint Center, Rosin made his NCAA dreams come true this weekend.

He, along with about 1,000 other rowdy Michigan fans, made Kansas City a welcoming atmosphere for the Wolverines — and a hostile one for Clemson and Oklahoma.

Hours before Thursday’s game against the Tigers, hundreds of Michigan faithful took over a pep rally across the street from the arena. Michigan, Clemson, Oklahoma and Morgan State each got 20 minutes to showcase their band and cheer teams.

Belligerent Wolverine fans in attendance saw their opportunity to strike as the Clemson band, cheerleaders and tiger mascot took the stage. An impromptu rendition of “The Victors” drowned out the introduction, and the few Clemson fans in attendance seemed taken aback.

Rosin equated the atmosphere, in which strangers wearing Michigan apparel shouted “Go Blue” to one another from across the street or concourse, to the 2007 Rose Bowl, which he also attended.

“At the Rose Bowl, it was cool to see how people from around the country came out to support their team,” Rosin said. “But I love this (NCAA Tournament regional). You get eight different teams that come up here, you know, drive however many hours. I just love the atmosphere here.”

Michigan, Clemson, Oklahoma, Maryland, Memphis, California, Morgan State and Cal-State Northridge played in the Sprint Center over the weekend ¬— and all were well-represented.

And even with the loss to Oklahoma on Saturday, Michigan fans stood and sang the fight song again in the final minute of regulation, relieved that the long wait for an NCAA Tournament game was finally over.