I am a former townie and not an alum. I think that makes my perspective different than someone who is an alum, but not a townie.
From my perspective if a hometown player is good enough to play at one of the Syracuse programs and help the program I would really like them to do that, but I also understand that that individual may have a desire to spread their wings and go to school somewhere other than their hometown. I will generally root for the hometown kids to do well, except when it directly impacts SU negatively in some fashion. So if UConn played SU I would always root for SU to win over the hometown kid's team. If Stewart were competing against an SU girl for an award of some sort I would always root for the SU kid to win it. That said, I would root for Stewart to win it over some random kid playing at S. Carolina.
I also get how SU alums, who are not townies, wouldn't really give a crap about Stewart. She's from Syracuse....so what? She didn't attend SU.
Ultimately, I think the posters in this thread that recognize that there is really more down side to scheduling a game with UConn then there is upside are right. What is in it for SU....a one in a million chance to shock the world...probably not enough in comparison with putting a sizable crowd in your home building that might actually be rooting against you.
As for Stewart's decision....she had the opportunity to help build a hometown program that has historically been mediocre to downright terrible or attend and be a part of what is arguably the best program of all time...and not just be a part of it, but be its centerpiece. The decision was something of a no brainer. She could not have accomplished all that she has at UConn if she had stayed at home and attended SU. Would she still have been a great individual player...probably, but would she have played for four NCAA championships, probably not. Would she be looking at the opportunity to be the first 3x National Player of the year since Cheryl Miller...probably not. If the decision had been to go and be the player on the end of the bench at UConn for four years vs. coming to SU and being a star, then maybe you have a better argument that she should have chosen SU.
I got the animosity that was directed at Paulus for choosing Duke or that would have been directed at DCII had he chosen UK. In both of those cases SU presented a more similar opportunity to the out of town opportunity they were weighing against SU. In Stewart's case it would almost be like asking a men's player to choose LeMoyne against SU.