Just 24 hours from tip-off, the Olathe resident and her family were in Dayton and still didn’t have tickets to today’s 6:40 p.m. game between Kansas University and Cal State Northridge.

Mostaffa said her husband, Mark, already had received several offers from scalpers, who have been the only ones selling NCAA Tournament tickets since the event sold out before the brackets were even announced last Sunday.

“He’s pretty confident it’ll work out,” she said. “We may end up spending a little more than we wished, but we’ll get tickets.”

Mostaffa and her family were among the Jayhawk faithful who watched the Jayhawks’ public practice session Thursday at the University of Dayton Arena.

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One section over, Jan Bartz and his family already had scored all-session tickets even though they had to pay $250 for each to an online ticket broker.

“I’ve lived on KU basketball,” the Lawrence resident said. “I saw Wilt Chamberlain play back when I was in high school.”

Bartz made the 10-hour drive Wednesday with his wife, Maryann, and daughter, Barbara. They’ve seen KU play during every NCAA regional since 1994, and they weren’t going to miss this one.

“We’ve gotta support them,” he said.

The Jayhawks’ placement in Dayton also pleased KU fans living in Ohio, including Ed Dowell, a Dayton resident who used to live in Olathe. He also came to watch the KU practice Thursday.

But he won’t watch the Jayhawks’ game today. Instead, he’s heading to Cincinnati, where his great-niece, Mandy Rollins, is playing for Chattanooga University in the NCAA women’s tournament.

“I had this tremendous dilemma,” he said.

However, Dowell said he had confidence the Jayhawks would advance in the tournament even without him there.

“I vote emotionally, and I think they’ll get to the Final Four,” he said. “Everybody thinks I’m nuts, but I think they’re starting to realize this is a brand-new season.”

Lawrence native Steve Wolcott, who now lives in Dayton, took his family to the airport to meet the Jayhawks Wednesday. KU’s Eric Chenowith even told Wolcott’s 6-year-old son, Zach, that he looked like a miniature version of singer Donny Osmond.

“There were quite a few shouts and cartwheels when KU was announced to come to Dayton,” Wolcott said.

Dave Anstaett, a 1992 Kansas University graduate and law student at the University of Wisconsin, said he already was planning to visit his parents in Dayton during spring break. When Anstaett walked off the plane in Dayton, his father was standing at the gate, holding tournament tickets.

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Anstaett plans to wear his lucky KU hat to today’s game just like he has for every game since a team manager gave it to him more than 10 years ago.

“It is a white hat, but by this time it’s practically brown,” he said. “I’ve got some unappreciative comments from my fiancee, but she’s used to it.”