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Gregg Marshall writes to Wichita State students after seeing empty seats in student section (PHOTO)

Louisville v Wichita State

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Wichita State is once again a top-25 program and the Shockers enjoy one of the best homecourt advantages in the country. But during the last few weeks, the Shockers have seen some empty seats in the student section in the top few rows.

This has irked Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall a little bit and it led to Marshall writing a letter that students found before the Dec. 6 home game against Saint Louis. Marshall urged students to either use the tickets they are given from the school or give them to someone who will:

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Wichita State students might be missing games because of the ticket distribution policy at the school. According to a story from Paul Suellentrop of the Wichita Eagle, the school might revise the current system of how they give tickets to students.

Students are given 1,100 free tickets and they can get tickets to three or four games at a time. The issue might come with some tickets going unused because students get busy or don’t want to go after getting the tickets for so many advance games. Wichita State estimated 500 empty seats for the Tulsa game on Nov. 29. The school could choose to give student tickets away to each individual game instead.

“For whatever reason, there’s just a big void of students in that top part of the student section,” Marshall said to Suellentrop. “Which is kind of shocking to me. They’ll come. I’m not worried about it. We’re working with them.”

Marshall has put together a quality program that is nearly unbeatable at home, has gone to a Final Four and produced an undefeated regular season. I can’t say I blame him for wanting to have all of the seats filled to help his team win games and show some appreciation.

Wichita State has some of the best fans in college basketball -- I can attest to this having seen Shocker faithful travel for the NCAA Tournament -- but it seems like student interest in games might be dwindling at some programs, even with strong teams on the floor. It’s probably just a winter break/Thanksgiving lull, but we’ll see if Marshall got through to Wichita State students.
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