The Marshall University ticket office is predicting positive overall statistics from this year’s basketball sales.

The ticket office does not release its statistics on overall attendance until the end of the season, but Aaron Goebbel, associate athletic director for external affairs, felt positive about this year’s basketball season.

“As far as we were last year, we definitely are above last year,” Goebbel said. “We had a good year. That’s the best way to say it without throwing out a number.”

There has been a jump in interest in the men’s basketball team at Marshall, but in the eyes of some, it is still not quite where it needs to be.

“We feel like the season hasn’t been up to the expectations of some,” Goebbel said. “But we understood. We knew our roster, and we knew the transition that coach was going through. Marshall men’s basketball team will focus on the character of the team more than ever before in the upcoming years under the leadership of head coach Dan D’antoni.

“Now you’ve still got to win games,” Goebbel said. “But when you have student athletes that the fans can relate to that’s the perfect marriage.”

Interest is expected from the local recruits that the fans are familiar with.

“With Stevie (Browning) coming in next year after his transfer, CJ Burks, who’s sitting out this year, that’s from the area and we have the transfer from VMI that’s from the Charleston area, we have a lot of guys that can shoot it.” Goebbel said.

There is a noticeable increase at the women’s basketball games this season, but the attendance at women’s games is a work in progress.

“You can lose fans overnight, but you gain fans over time,“ Goebbel said.

There are higher expectations for Herd fan attendance but the athletic department has taken notice of the continuous support.

“I’ve been around, and if you look at our conference and you look at schools that have similar attendance records to us, they don’t get what we get in night in and night out,” Goebbel said. “Now we need more people and I’m not satisfied but if you travel around our conference they have maybe a 10th of what we have from a crowd standpoint.”

Goebbel said he is expecting a spike in attendance next year for basketball attendance.

“We think next year will be a really big year, “ Goebbel said.

Mercedez Speight can be contacted at [email protected].