BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Bowling Green proclaims Anderson Arena as "The House That Roars." It might be more like a whimper today. Illinois State's basketball team is no stranger to such a situation. | Gameday glance

The Redbirds (6-3), seeking their first road victory, meet Bowling Green (4-4) in a 1 p.m. nonconference game at Anderson Arena. The crowd should be larger than the 385 that attended ISU's last road game Dec. 4 at Eastern Michigan, another Mid-American Conference school.

How much bigger remains to be seen, especially with a snowy forecast predicted for northwest Ohio.

Bowling Green has drawn crowds of 1,053 (Nov. 17 vs. Morehead State) and 1,248 (Nov. 24 vs. Temple) for its first two home games under first-year coach Louis Orr. The second game came during the Falcons' Thanksgiving break when students were gone.

The students will be absent today, too, as final examinations finished Friday. At least, Anderson Arena is a cozy building which seats 4,700 compared to Eastern Michigan's Convocation Center, which has a capacity of 8,800.

"It's hard because you want to play in front of big crowds," said ISU guard Boo Richardson. "You don't have a lot of fans on your end, and you hear everything the crowd is saying. But it shouldn't affect you because if you execute and do the right things and have energy between ourselves, the Redbird family, it will just be us. That's how it should be."

There wasn't much of an atmosphere for the Redbirds when they played Kent State in the Chicago Invitational on Nov. 24 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, either. No attendance figure was released, but there were about a thousand fans for the opening tip. The crowd was bigger at game's end with fans coming to watch Indiana play Xavier in the second contest.

"Every coach you play for will say you have to create your own energy within your team, especially on the road," said ISU center Levi Dyer. "Some places you have a lot of crowd energy and a lot of negative energy towards you, but it is still energy. Places like (Eastern Michigan) that are so dead, it starts with the players and coaches and managers. Everyone on the bus with us has to create energy."

Dating back to the end of the 2004-05 season, ISU has lost 32 of its last 36 games away from Redbird Arena, including 0-3 this season.

"One of the toughest challenges in college basketball is playing at a high level in an arena that has little or no atmosphere. It's a great challenge," said ISU coach Tim Jankovich. "As big of a challenge as it is, it can never be an excuse. You can never take the mentality that the lighting is not right or it's too hot or too cold or not loud enough.

"That's sports. Sports on the road is adapting to whatever you find once you get there and having the mental toughness to ignore everything except your responsibilities."

ISU gets plenty of chances to adapt in the next three weeks. Today is the first of four straight road games. There's another trip to a MAC school Saturday, Ball State in Muncie, Ind., before the start of Missouri Valley Conference action at Creighton (Dec. 29) and Wichita State (Jan. 1).

"If you have the right attitude and a positive outlook, it's an opportunity and not a detriment," said Jankovich. "We need to look at is as nothing but an opportunity."

With ISU final exams ending Friday, the team took a 5½-hour bus trip here Saturday instead of going on a charter flight. Dyer believes the previous long bus ride of his four-year ISU career was to Northern Iowa two years ago, about 4½ hours.

"I think it is fun (taking a bus)," said Dyer after practice in Normal Friday. "You get to talk to more of your teammates for a longer time about stuff. There's a little joking around in the back, but for the most part you spend more time with your teammates."

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Illinois State vs. Bowling Green

When: 1 p.m. today

Where: Anderson Arena, Bowling Green, Ohio

Records: ISU 6-3; Bowling Green 4-4

Broadcast: WJBC-AM (1230), WJEZ-FM (98.9)