UCONN is the major, top, public university in all of New England. No question, no doubt. We are a hell of a lot closer to Penn State as a peer, than we are to any other public institution in the entire region. The difference in the northeast culture, the northeast corridor in general from DC to Boston, from the rest of the country when it comes to intercollegiate athletics is that there are so, so, so many private colleges. The exact number of private colleges that field division 1 sports of some sort from DC to Boston I'm estimated to be numbered in 100s. Among those private colleges is the entire Ivy League.
UCONN needs to embrace what we are, and promote it. Boston is a great place to go and play sports. It's really nothing more than fear and loathing, that has prevented us in the past decade from regularly scheduling Boston College, which is the only comparable division 1A institution (in label) in the area - they are nothing like us other than the 1A label in reality)
Scheduling basketball, unless it's a conference game, which isn't happening, in Boston should be entertained as home games for UCONN, as it was in 2007 when we lost to Gonzaga. Scheudling basketball anywhere in New England, should be done with UCONN in control of the issues. That's my only point in all of this. I have not said that I am against, and once again I am not against playing basketball, or football in Boston. I'm against doing it stupidly.
As for New York City - it's an entirely different community and demographic than Boston, and it behooves us greatly for a number of reasons, to put priority on scheduling as many events as we can in the city, and preferably against Big 10 opponents, who - like us - have tens of thousands of alumni in the close proximity of the 5 boroughs. (I'm not sure about the claim made before about Massachuseets having the most alumni outside of CT - I know that there are something like 22-25,000 alumni in the immediate 5 borough area.)
Anyway - it's my opinion - that given a priority choice of scheduling hoops - scheduling big 10 opponents in MSG (and playing an invite tournament vs. say Indiana, Mich St, Wisconsin - in MSG) takes priority over playing any group of NE programs in Boston - even if it's neutral site in MSG.