Arizona Women's Basketball

School Making Push for Students to Attend Arizona Wildcats’ WNIT Games

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The Zona Zoo prides itself as a two-time National Collegiate Student Section Association of the Year.

The Zona Zoo is in full force for men’s basketball, where sellouts are regular and being seen is as important as being there. For women’s basketball, it’s a much different story. The Zona Zoo is practically non-existent although coach Adia Barnes needs the help of students to make McKale Center a more formidable place for her burgeoning program.

For football games, the student section has long been criticized for leaving games by halftime.

Can the students step up beyond men’s basketball?

Barnes, athletic director Dave Heeke, football coach Kevin Sumlin and former Arizona standout Solomon Hill purchased 275 tickets for students for Thursday night’s WNIT game against Idaho State, won by the Wildcats 66-56.

Damien Alameda of KOLD Channel 13 offered this picture of the apathetic student section:

Some of the extra tickets had to be given away at will call:

The Zona Zoo tweeted that 300 tickets will be made available for students for the second round matchup against Pacific tomorrow at 3 p.m. As an incentive, the first 50 students receive free pizza.

Heeke and Sumlin have pledged to provide 100 of those 300.

An excuse I heard for the lack of turnout Thursday is that Arizona’s students are on spring break. That’s not the case. Arizona’s students were on spring break from March 2-10. And even if spring break was ongoing, how difficult is it for the thousands of students remaining in town to nab one of the 275 free tickets?

Barnes and the Wildcats’ athletic staff are undaunted in their quest for better attendance. The push is for Arizona to reach 5,000 fans for the game against Pacific.

As it is, Arizona had the second-most attended game out of the 32 WNIT first round games with 3,265 attending the game against Idaho State. Only Arkansas, with 3,689 for its 88-80 win over Houston on Thursday, had more than the Wildcats. Arizona and Arkansas were the only schools with more than 3,000.

The top five crowds with second round action starting today:

[table sort=”descending”]
Game,Attendance,Result
Houston at Arkansas,3689,Arkansas won 88-80
Idaho State at Arizona,3265,Arizona won 66-56
Denver at New Mexico,2875,New Mexico lost 83-75
Northern Colorado at Wyoming,2685,Wyoming won 68-60
Northern Iowa at Minnesota,2549,Minnesota won 91-75
[/table]

2019 WNIT FIRST ROUND ATTENDANCE FIGURES

AllSportsTucson.com

Access full bracket at this link.

Arizona’s Quad

[table sort=”descending”]
Game,Attendance,Result
Idaho State at Arizona,3265,Arizona won 66-56
Denver at New Mexico,2875,New Mexico lost 83-75
Northern Colorado at Wyoming,2685,Wyoming won 68-60
South Alabama at Lamar,1829,Lamar lost 73-71
Pepperdine at Cal Baptist,833,Cal Baptist lost 91-79
Pacific at Fresno State,599,Fresno State lost 77-72
Hawaii at St. Mary’s,444,St. Mary’s won 67-43
Idaho at Loyola Marymount,315,LMU lost 79-64
[/table]

Second Round
Tucson times

Sunday
South Alabama at Wyoming, 1 p.m.
Denver at Idaho, 2 p.m.
Pacific at Arizona, 3 p.m.
Pepperdine at St. Mary’s, 5 p.m.

Quad 2

[table sort=”descending”]
Game,Attendance,Result
Houston at Arkansas,3689,Arkansas won 88-80
Northern Iowa at Minnesota,2549,Minnesota won 91-75
UAB at Troy,2451,Troy lost 93-89
Youngstown State at Cincinnati,1951,Cincinnati won 76-62
Kent State at Green Bay,1269,Green Bay lost 64-59
Stephen F. Austin at UT Arlington,1159,UTA won 60-54
Prairie View at TCU,987,TCU won 72-41
Northeastern at Butler,437,Butler won 89-82
[/table]

Second Round
Tucson times

Saturday
UT Arlington at TCU, noon
Kent State at Butler, 4 p.m.

Sunday
UAB at Arkansas, noon
Minnesota at Cincinnati, noon

Quad 3
Opposite of Arizona

[table sort=”descending”]
Game,Attendance,Result
IUPUI at Middle Tennessee,1492,Middle Tennessee won 59-47
Seton Hall at Toledo,1289,Toledo won 71-65
Morehead State at Ohio State,1114,Ohio State lost 71-61
Rider at West Virginia,1032,West Virginia won 83-43
High Point at Ohio,567,Ohio won 81-74
Old Dominion at Villanova,521,Villanova won 86-81 (OT)
Western Kentucky at Miami (Ohio),338,Western Kentucky won 67-63
Dayton at Northwestern,325,Northwestern won 74-51
[/table]

Second Round
Tucson times

Sunday
Middle Tennessee at Ohio, 11 a.m.
Northwestern at Toledo, 11 a.m.
Villanova at West Virginia, noon
Morehead State at Western Kentucky, noon

Quad 4
Opposite of Arizona

[table sort=”descending”]
Game,Attendance,Result
Stetson at South Florida,1357,South Florida won 84-50
North Carolina A&T at James Madison,1120,James Madison won 48-37
American at Penn,817,Penn won 64-45
Furman at Virginia Tech,681,Virginia Tech won 92-65
Charlotte at VCU,383,VCU won 65-52
Hartford at Providence,368,Providence won 71-54
Sacred Heart at Georgetown,345,Georgetown won 90-59
Drexel at Harvard,266,Harvard won 69-56
[/table]

Second Round
Tucson times

Sunday
VCU at Virginia Tech, 11 a.m.
South Florida at James Madison, noon
Georgetown at Harvard, noon
Penn at Providence 1 p.m.

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