This weekend Matt and I to Terre Haute, IN to watch the bears take on the Indiana State Sycamores. (In case you are unaware, I have decided it would be fun to pick an away game or two each season until I’ve visited all the other MVC venues – and this is my first) ISU’s recent loosing streak was obviously taking a major toll on their fans. From my estimations, about 9,000 of the seats remained empty throughout the game – very sad for any division 1 program, and a far cry from the enthusiasm I am used in Springfield. The few fans still coming out this season were obviously frustrated and full of apathy, barely hanging on by a thread of hope that their beloved Sycamores would somehow find their way back to glory. Remember, this is the same team who earlier in the season beat 3 high ranking programs (Butler, Wichita State, and Purdue). Today they would loose at home to Missouri State by 29 points, their sixth loss in a row.
The ISU fans we talked to were very nice to us, complimented our team, and offered to take Coach B. off our hands. There was also a guy from Terre Haute sitting in front of us wearing a maroon shirt (over his ISU Tshirt) who said he has a shirt for every opposing teams color so that he can sit in the visitor section. I felt very bad for the Sycamores, and their fans. Their season was obviously long over, and everyone knew it. They appeared to be playing the game, simply because they had to.
All in all it was a great time, mainly because the bears had a stellar game and got a much valued road win.
PS – Because I am such a MSU bbal geek, I will “rate” all the places I visit on a scale of 1 – 5 stars. Here is what I came up with for ISU.
Venue: Hulman Center (More pics here.
Capacity: 10,500
Arena: 
A bit dated with really a terrible, hard to read scoreboard, but otherwise large, with a nice concourse complete with live video feeds to tv monitors – plus the seats were padded!
City: Terre Haute wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly interesting either. They had a TGI Friday’s, which kept it from earning only 2 stars.
Crowd Involvement: I can’t blame them, given the current shape of the team. With maybe 10% of the seats filled, you can’t expect much.
Team Introductions:
Concessions: Cheap… plus they had dippin’ dots!
Ease of Parking: I should note that if there were more than the 1000 people at the game, parking would have likely been a real chore given the arena’s downtown location with limited parking options.
Restrooms: Very spacious with ample facilities.