"You sure are getting a lot of mail," he said, peering up at the 6-foot-3 post out of Stafford, Texas, just southwest of Houston.

Bone appreciates the way her mailman has figured out how to stuff all her mail into the family's box. He'll fold the long pieces in half and tuck the smaller ones inside.

"He even can get a couple of media guides in," Bone says. "I think I'm going to owe him a nice Christmas present."

Like the day Bone received 67 pieces of mail from colleges. Sixty-seven! Mail from schools she liked, some she kind of liked, some she didn't like and, even, some she never heard of.

"I was like, 'Wow, am I supposed to open all of it?' " Bone recalls. "I hope every day isn't like this."

It hasn't been, but it has been a constant stream, with some days more absurd than others.

Take Tuesday, Sept. 18, two days after college coaches are allowed to make visits to high schools. Bone's school, Dulles, in Sugar Land, Texas, still is in preseason - weight lifting, followed by open gym - when five coaches decide to visit. "When they come," Bone says, "they come in bunches." Bone is putting on her sneakers when a door swings open and the coaches enter, single file - Sherri Coale of Oklahoma, Brenda Frese of Maryland, C. Joanne McCallie of Duke, Vivian Stringer of Rutgers and Mark Trakh of Southern Cal.

An internal debate ensues. Bones wonders if she should make eye contact with the coaches. If she does, she'll have to make sure it is with each, she decides. But what if she looks at one longer than another, she wonders. Something certain can, and will, be read into a simple glance.

Bone decides to keep her head down and eyes focused on her shoestrings.

The Courant story prompted one coach, whom Bone would rather not name, to point out that, like Auriemma, she made a personal visit to Dulles. "I acknowledged that," Bone says. "But I also told her the reporter was asking about was not writing about her." The visit and the story became fodder for posters on team message boards. Bone's mother, Kim Williams, a third-grade teacher, even was a target. One fans said the family seemed to favor a different school every day. "She should make up her mind," the fan wrote.

The phone calls can begin in April.

"It kind of all catches you off guard," Bone says. "Other people don't really know what you're going through, but they all have something to say. I have so many schools trying to get my attention. I should start telling some of them I'm not interested, but I have a problem saying no. I'm kind of caught in it. It really seems easy to say, 'I'm not interested in you,' but it's not."

So Bone keeps making the little calculations, leading her mostly to avoiding conflict.

During one open gym, she weighed the consequences of taking a breather during a fullcourt scrimmage. Usually, she would have chilled down on the baseline. But that would've meant enduring the stares of a couple college coaches in attendance. If she looked back, should she smile? Should she wave?

So Kelsey Bone did what many elite high-school girl's basketball players might: She played all afternoon.

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