Clay Kallam on upsides and downsides of summer youth ball: "Earlier exposure could actually work against a player because coaches have in their minds what the girl was like when she was smaller and slower. Regardless, the crucial time [for college recruitment] is... junior year and the following summer... Very, very few Division I [caliber] athletes fall through the cracks, whether they play in the summer or not."

Clay's epidemiology desk tracks the persistence of the dreaded Our Girls Syndrome, updating a much-quoted essay from 2003. (But the Sun's attendance has risen, while other teams' turnouts have dropped. Would Minnesota make a better example?)