Three games sold out as ticket sales pick up

Season ticket sales for USC men’s basketball are “up significantly from last year,” when the Trojans sold about 5,000 including student seats, senior associate athletic director Steve Lopes said Thursday.

Lopes declined to provide a specific figure but said games at the 10,258-seat Galen Center against UCLA, Arizona and Kansas were sold out. Only a few tickets remain for games against Oklahoma on Nov. 29 and Stanford on March 6, Lopes said.

While season ticket prices remained steady at $395, Lopes said, some individual ticket prices rose slightly. Games against UCLA and Kansas are $40 each, with most Pacific 10 Conference games going for $30 apiece.

USC averaged 5,798 fans last season at the Galen Center, including 7,927 in conference play. The biggest crowd was 10,027 for the home finale against California.

Athletic officials have sold about $13 million in personal seat licenses at the Galen Center, with only a few hundred of the 3,300 licenses still available, said senior associate athletic director Don Winston.

Most of the remaining seats are in the upper deck and behind one of the baskets and go for $3,500 apiece, Winston said. Seat licenses entitle the purchaser to buy season tickets for athletic events in prime locations and provide right of first refusal for other events such as concerts.

Seat licenses also require a $2,750 yearly membership in the Cardinal and Gold booster club.

A day after becoming the Trojans’ first preseason Wooden Award candidate since David Bluthenthal and Sam Clancy during the 2001-02 season, sophomore forward Taj Gibson also learned he was among 50 preseason candidates for the Naismith Trophy. “It’s an honor to even be nominated,” Gibson said. “A lot of good players throughout the nation are not even nominated.” . . . Freshman guard Marcus Simmons, recovering from a sprained ankle, was able to participate in a full practice and is expected to play in Sunday’s intrasquad scrimmage. Davon Jefferson (sprained knee) said he might play depending on how he feels in practice today and Saturday. . . . Sophomore guard Dwight Lewis was held out of practice after missing a class, Coach Tim Floyd said.

ben.bolch@latimes.com