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Michigan State University student Derek Blalock poses with his Trek road bike on Friday, March 20, 2015, outside of his home in East Lansing. In 2011, one of Blalock's best friends from middle and high school, Thomas Smith, passed away at 17-years-old from an undiagnosed enlarged heart. The purpose of his 6,500 mile bike ride is to raise money for the Thomas Smith Memorial Foundation, a foundation started by the Smith family, to fund all heart screenings during mandatory health physicals for school athletics.

(Sam Owens | MLive.com)

FLUSHING, MI -- A Flushing High School graduate is using Michigan State University's run to the Final Four as training for a planned 6,500-mile bike ride this summer for a good cause.

Related: Bike ride of 6,500 miles honors Flushing friend, raises money for teen heart screenings

Derek Blalock, 21, a senior marketing major living in East Lansing, said he was at a friend's off-campus apartment watching the Elite Eight game with a group of around eight people Sunday afternoon.

When the final horn sounded in overtime and the Spartans emerged victorious over Louisville, he told his buddies amid the raucous atmosphere, "We're going to Indy!"

MSU will face off Saturday night against Duke at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for a spot in the national championship game.

"I started looking up distances on how it was to drive," said Blalock of the 250 miles from mid-Michigan to central Indiana. "I was like, wait, I don't really have anything too important on Thursday, or Friday, or Saturday. I started thinking it was good opportunity."

With a pending 23-state bike trip, during which he hopes to raise $25,000 in donations for the Thomas Smith Memorial Foundation in memory of his high school friend who died of sudden cardiac arrest, the former State News writer told close friends, "I think I'm going to bike to Indy to raise some awareness."

Calling on roommate Alyssa Girardi and her boyfriend Pat Evans' public relations knowledge to stir up some interest, Blalock said the idea has "just kind of snowballed and I can't really believe it," while calling the trip "a perfect preparation ride for me."

"I'll be able to camp and ride, what I was going to do over the summer," he said, using the Twitter hashtag #finalfourbybike to document the trip, while looking for some MSU alumni along the route to Indianapolis for a place to rest his head at night. "I can find out what I need to bring with me."

It doesn't hurt either that the end of this trip will result in some top-notch basketball. Blalock said he's been part of the rabid "Izzone" student section, a more than 3,000 strong fan contingent of MSU students during his entire collegiate career.

"I love the games, " he said, especially the match-ups against that team from Ann Arbor. "We had a down year during the regular season (this year), but it's always exciting to be in the Breslin Center for the games."

Blalock was at the Breslin Sunday evening when the team returned home and a pep rally of sorts took place, with a hype video played just prior to the team's arrival.

"Izzo said some words," he said, followed by the team's three seniors -- Travis Trice, Brenden Dawson and Keenan Wetzel -- and head football coach Mark Dantonio. "It was exciting to be there."

Blalock said he's gone to one other NCAA tournament, that being two years ago to watch MSU and the University of Michigan play in games at the Palace in Auburn Hills.

He's getting a ride back with friends Monday, but if the Spartans make it to Monday night's game against the winner of Kentucky and Wisconsin in the other semifinal, he'll head back to Indy but on four wheels.

"If we win, you bet I'm going," he said. "I probably won't get a chance to do it again."