Mike Rhoades wants you to be louder.

He also wants your friends to be louder. Shoot, Rhoades probably wants your mom to be louder when she’s watching Penn State men’s basketball at the Bryce Jordan Center.

After Penn State’s 102-89 win over Purdue Fort Wayne on Wednesday night, Rhoades made an appeal to fans to make their presence heard in the BJC.

“This is to everybody that shows up to games at the BJC,” Rhoades said. “The talk and what we used to say about the BJC and how quiet it is, I’m challenging all of you — the old Penn Staters, the middle-aged Penn Staters like me, and all the young ones, all the students, every one of us — get out of your seat. Get on your feet. Sweat with us.”

The Nittany Lions have long suffered from poor attendance. The only game Penn State sold out on its campus during last season’s campaign was at the Return to Rec game against Illinois when Penn State got 6,150 in a much smaller gym at Rec Hall.

However, at the BJC, things just aren’t the same. The crowd doesn’t nearly fill the arena, and the curtains surround the closed-off upper level. Without the fan attendance to impress, the noise in the BJC doesn’t either. Against Purdue Fort Wayne, Penn State reported an attendance of 6,547 — more than the total number of fans in Rec Hall, but a much smaller percentage of seats filled in the 15,261-seat arena.

Rhoades tried his best to get the crowd going. As Penn State mounted a comeback, he turned around to the Legion of Blue to get the student section hyped up. He walked around the court — almost making it to the Nittany Lion logo — to get the rest of the building to do the same. While the crowd responded initially, that energy didn’t stick around for the duration of the contest.

Regardless of what happened on Wednesday night with the crowd’s largely silent behavior, Rhoades believed the best days of the BJC crowds could be in the future.

“We will fight for you guys. I want you sweating with everybody,” Rhoades said. “We should never have the BJC quiet. I don’t care how big the BJC is. We’re not making any excuses around here, but I need you all.

“So if you come to the game, man, get some extra Gatorade and some water and sweat with us and get into the game. For the older people, like me and up, it’s a great day for exercise… For all you young people, get crazy with it and bring your friends with you all the time. You’re not going to get in trouble for being an idiot for 40 minutes. I got your back.

“But I want to build this program with all of you guys, and I want it to be a fun night in State College every time we play.”