CARBONDALE - Alltel Arena, an 18,000-seat palace on the north bank of the Arkansas River, is one of the premier college basketball facilities in the Midwest.

The University of Arkansas-Little Rock would love to show it off. If anyone would take the Trojans up on their offer.

Much like Southern Illinois University, UALR has difficulty drawing top-tier opponents to its home court. The two defending league champions - UALR (Sun Belt East Division) and SIU (Missouri Valley) - butt heads tonight at 7 p.m.

UALR head coach Steve Shields is marketing the game as a premier matchup for Trojans fans.

"I've got a ton of respect for what they've been able to accomplish over there," Shields said Monday. "This is what I've told our people in the Little Rock area: 'Hey, here's your chance to see a team that could very possibly play a couple weeks into the NCAA tournament.'"

UALR (3-3) has the potential to join SIU (4-1) in the tournament, should the Salukis gain a fourth-straight bid.

Shields performed one of the best coaching jobs in the nation in 2003-04. The first-year head coach had just one starter returning, but he orchestrated a 17-12 season and first-place finish in the Sun Belt East.

This season, UALR features four returning starters, including senior guard Brandon Freeman (17 ppg). The 6-foot-3 Freeman dropped 25 points on No. 5 Oklahoma State earlier this season. UALR runs its offense through Freeman and 6-9 forward Darius Eason (10.5 ppg).

Both seniors were preseason all-conference selections, Freeman a second-teamer and Eason a third-teamer.

"That's no secret to anyone out there," Shields said. "They are our marquee-type guys."

Said SIU head coach Chris Lowery, "We've got to make sure (Freeman) doesn't get off. Make sure he doesn't get a lot of 3-point looks in transition or in a half-court setting. The big kid, Darius Eason, is obviously a factor for us. Anybody with that size and that athleticism can cause problems."

Shields laughed when asked why his non-conference schedule included national title contenders Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech, in addition to MVC contenders Southwest Missouri State and SIU.

"I'm kind of wondering the same thing. It wasn't completely by design," Shields said with a chuckle. "I think any time you have seven seniors, it makes it more difficult to schedule. That's something that Southern Illinois is very aware of, with the success they've had. We haven't had near that kind of success that they've had, and it's difficult.

"It is difficult to schedule at any mid-major level, especially to get home games."

Teams like SIU and UALR face the same problem every preseason: top teams from lesser-known conferences can't yank the big boys out of their own gyms. SIU and UALR completed their home-and-home contract late in the scheduling process. The Trojans travel to Carbondale next season.

"From my standpoint, I wasn't looking forward to playing Southern Illinois," Shields said. "But the opportunity to get a home game made it very attractive."

Lowery recognized that tonight's contest would be SIU's fourth straight tough test away from home. Neutral-court wins over Vanderbilt and UTEP, followed by a loss at Hawaii, will toughen SIU for the stretch run, the coach said.

"We wanted a team that's going to be good, a team that's going to have athletes and a different team that's going to play different styles," Lowery said. "If you get the opportunity to go to the (NCAA) tournament, you want the chance to play all different kinds of teams that play different defenses and offenses, so you've seen them."

paul.klee@thesouthern.com 618-529-5454 x15085