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Michigan State Spartans Goran Suton celebrates during the second half of his NCAA men's Midwest Regional finals basketball game against the Louisville Cardinals in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 29, 2009. REUTERS/Matt Sullivan

DETROIT (Reuters) - The varied roads that lead to U.S. college basketball's Final Four have passed this year through war-torn Sarajevo.

Growing up just outside Sarajevo, Goran Suton knew nothing of the season-ending phenomenon known as March Madness that grips Americans each year.

Suton's childhood was consumed by the virulence of ethnic cleansing and a Balkan war that uprooted his family several times before they finally settled in East Lansing, Michigan in the summer of 2000.

Now the starting center for Michigan State, Suton can tell you all about the Final Four and what it means.

"It means the world to me," Suton told reporters on Thursday. "I didn't know a thing about college basketball.

"I remember leaving my country and telling my coach I was going to Lansing, Michigan.

"I told him maybe I will play there one day and it came true.

"I remember as soon as I came here everyone was crazy about college basketball, they watched it more than the NBA. Everyone was into it."

Certainly the entire state of Michigan is engrossed this year.

A record crowd of close to 72,000 is expected to fill Ford Field for the Spartans' semi-final showdown Saturday against Big East powerhouse Connecticut.

LIFT FOR DETROIT

Victory would give the Spartans a spot in Monday's championship game against either North Carolina or Villanova.

The Spartans' presence in the Final Four has provided both an emotional and economic lift for Detroit, a beleaguered city reeling from soaring unemployment and a collapsing auto industry.

But as tough as times are in Michigan, Suton has endured worse, chased from fields sprinkled with landmines while learning basketball in a bullet-scarred Sarajevo arena.

"I think it changes the way that I think about the world and basketball," said Suton. "I was little when we first left but I remember hiding in the basement right when the war started.

"Moving to Serbia with just one suitcase with no where to go, just my mom. It seems like 50 years ago.

"What happened earlier in my life and throughout my life it shapes you as a person, it makes you respect and appreciate more, especially in a country like this.

"The reason I do basketball and want to succeed is to pay my parents back for all they've done for me.

"I don't know what I would have done if I was in their situation."

(Editing by John Mehaffey)