Update: Tickets for the next four home games against Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Alabama have been sold out.Kentucky men’s basketball tickets have become like gold.With the Cats’ riding an unscathed 18-0 record to begin the season, a potential No. 1 ranking coming and national exposure reaching an all-time high, the demand for UK tickets may have never been higher. At Tuesday night’s lottery, the third of the season, an estimated 8,200 control numbers were handed out to students hoping to purchase tickets to upcoming basketball games against Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Alabama, just a few hundred short of the total number of control tickets handed out for all of last season.Joe Sharpe, assistant athletics director for the ticket office, said they gave away approximately 10,000 control numbers all of last year over four different lotteries. Students packed Memorial Coliseum Tuesday night, lining up outside the arena more than an hour and a half before doors were opened at 8:30 p.m. Sharpe said they started to sell tickets around 9:50 p.m. and sold the last few around 12:50 a.m. Sharpe also said they sold out the entire ticket allotment for the Vanderbilt game on Jan. 30, the first time UK has sold out tickets for a game at the lottery since former UK coach Rick Pitino returned to Kentucky as the Louisville coach in 2001.The first 2,000 students at Tuesday night’s lottery received a ticket to ESPN College GameDay, which will visit Lexington on Feb. 13 for the Tennessee game. UK is hoping to sell out Rupp Arena for ESPN’s program, setting a new GameDay attendance record and becoming the first program to pack its arena for the weekly basketball show.If a student’s control number is called at the lottery, they are allowed one ticket per game with a valid student ID. Tickets cost $5 each.

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