For New York State, outside New York City, there have been no officially confirmed cases this year, but 36 cases have been unofficially reported at Siena College in Loudonville, just outside Albany, and 22 more in Nassau County, primarily at C. W. Post College. There have been 15 cases officially confirmed in New York City, compared with 4 in 1988.

Schools in the North Atlantic Conference are from six states, each with different laws specifying the incubation period of a contagious disease. In Connecticut, it is 21 days.

''Every time the telephone would ring for the past month, I'd wonder if it was news that one of our players had measles or that we weren't allowed in a certain state,'' Baker said.

As of today, however, only Siena and Hartford have had cases of measles on campus. Hartford reported today that a second student had the disease. School officials ordered a new round of vaccinations for resident students, and Walter M. Bortz 3d, the university vice president, extended restrictions on public events through March.

Because the main Coliseum entrance is on the first level of the mall, officials decided to use the service entrance. In the arena, Colgate was playing Siena, the regular-season champion, in the first game this morning. Siena won, 61-51, improving its record to 22-4. The teams had met only last Sunday in another quarantine game. Siena, in fact, has played seven times to the sounds of silence since a student vacationing in Puerto Rico came down with measles on Feb. 10.

''At first it was different, new,'' said Marc Brown, a sophomore guard averaging 19 points. ''But now, it's starting to wear on me. I'm a little flashy; I like to make a nice pass and hear the crowd cheer. But no one cheers.''

Steve McCoy, the Siena center, tried to see the positive side. ''We've played so much without a crowd that now it works in our favor,'' he said. ''Still, I miss the fans. With them, it makes it much more fun.''