By Marcus Fuller

Star Tribune

Richard Pitino’s Gophers were a hot ticket by the end of last season. That momentum has carried over into University of Minnesota men’s basketball season ticket sales for the 2017-18 season.

As of Friday morning, the Gophers sold about 1,000 more season tickets than last year to both the public and students — and more than 9,200 season tickets total.

“Our fans have responded after what they saw last year,” Gophers assistant athletic director of marketing Mike Wierzbicki said. “They’ve seen the growth in the team.”

Wisconsin announced Thursday that they sold out their student season tickets — all 2,100 — in 12 minutes. The Gophers are getting close to matching their rival Badgers.

Minnesota is close to selling out student season tickets for the first time since Pitino’s second season in 2014-15. Fewer than 200 season tickets are left for the 2,200-seat student section.

Last season, the Gophers sold fewer than 2,000 student season tickets and 6,141 non-student season tickets for men’s basketball. They sold 6,244 non-student season tickets in 2015-16.

Public men’s basketball season ticket sales are well over 7,000 this year, also already the highest since 2014 (7,225).