The Zona Zoo student section is nearing its first sellout of the season in advance of tomorrow’s game against No. 6 Washington State, with 2,000 students reserving seats as of yesterday afternoon.

Students can sign up for tickets up to four hours before game time, but the general public gets a crack at tickets starting today at 9 a.m. About 1,000 tickets have been reserved in the approximately 2,290-person section for Saturday’s game against Washington.

“”It would be very hard to come up with a reason students should not go to both of these games,”” said Zona Zoo director David Roost. “”This is (Pacific 10 Conference) basketball. We’ve got an amazing team going up against some really good competition. It’s already included in the pass so you might as well be going.””

Roost said the section has been more full than it was last year before the first Pac-10 games with school in session, but he hopes more students come out for the important conference schedule, particularly casual fans.

“”All the people thinking, ‘Maybe I should go,’ the average student thinking maybe I should give basketball a try, I guarantee they’ll be coming back for more because it would be nearly impossibly to not get hooked,”” Roost said.

He added that Zona Zoo has a couple surprises in store having worked with the marketing department to improve in-game entertainment.

But the main reason to come remains on the court, where the Wildcats could use a boisterous student section against a tough conference slate.

“”I’d like to remind everybody, especially all the new students who may not be aware, U of A is a big-time basketball school,”” Roost said. “”So you owe it to yourself to try this.””