Scorecard

TWO NOMINEES

"I'm proud to reach directly into the conservation community to find someone to lead this agency," said President-elect Bush as he nominated William K. Reilly to head the Environmental Protection Agency, one of the two most important environmental jobs in his new administration. Bush has reason to be proud of choosing Reilly, who was recommended by two of Bush's friends, William Ruckelshaus and Russell Train, both of whom are former EPA administrators and respected environmentalists. Reilly, 48, who has an undergraduate degree from Yale, a law degree from Harvard and a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia, has a broad knowledge of ecological issues. He's president of the Conservation Foundation, which does research into such environmental threats as toxic waste and ozone depletion. He also heads the U.S. chapter of the World Wildlife Fund, which seeks to protect endangered species and their habitats. In the early '70s he was a senior staff member on the Council on Environmental Quality, where he concentrated on land-use research. Some environmentalists question whether Reilly, with his background in research rather than in advocacy, has the toughness needed to enforce antipollution laws, but most approve of the nomination and hope that Reilly will find new remedies for ecological ills. "A truly outstanding selection," says outgoing EPA chief Lee Thomas, an able administrator who was kept on a short leash by the Reagan Administration.

By contrast, Bush's nominee for the second key environmental post, Secretary of the Interior, is New Mexico Republican Congressman Manuel Lujan Jr., who has evinced little concern for conservation during his 20 years in the House. Jim Maddy, executive director of the League of Conservation Voters, describes Lujan's voting record as "weak and getting weaker"; in the last Congress, Lujan voted with environmentalists a mere 13% of the time. Moreover, last year Lujan cosponsored a bill, which died in committee, that would have opened Alaska's North Slope to oil exploration.

Although Lujan has the support of western development interests and the American Petroleum Institute, he isn't considered a James Watt-style anti-environment ideologue. When Watt headed the Interior Department, Lujan, then the ranking Republican on the House Interior Committee, opposed an effort by Watt to open public lands to oil and gas exploration. He professes a fondness for the national parks, which suffer from neglect, and in accepting his nomination he said, "If one little piece of our public trust is desecrated, we all suffer."

Bush has said, "I am an environmentalist," and Reilly's nomination appears to be consistent with that stance. But stronger evidence of environmental consciousness on Lujan's part is needed if Bush is to live up to his claim.

SHE'S CRISSIE BLAKE TO US
The six singles players on the women's tennis team at East Stroudsburg (Pa.) University are Christy Daddona, Krista Hritz, Kristin Lowry, Kristy Jones, Chris Snell and Cheryl Blake.

AWAY FOR THE HOLIDAYS

During the yuletide, the basketball team from Pittsfield Central Institute, a high school in Pittsfield, Maine, played in the Kingdom of the Sun Holiday Classic in Ocala, Fla., as did schoolboy teams from New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Pennsylvania—and, oh, yes, Florida. Meanwhile, South Miami ( Fla.) High was off at the Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic, where the field included teams from California, Kentucky, Ohio, Louisiana, Washington, New York, the District of Columbia and, er, Nevada. The week before Christmas, St. Anthony's High of Jersey City, N.J., joined teams from Louisiana, South Carolina, New York, Ontario and, yes, Florida in the Great Florida Shootout in Kissimmee. Then, between Christmas and New Year's, St. Anthony's played in the King Cotton Classic in Pine Bluff, Ark., against teams from Virginia, Tennessee, California, Ohio, Kentucky, Louisiana and, ah, Arkansas.

Clearly, there's a boom in high school holiday basketball tournaments, with more than a dozen major events now crowding the schoolboy calendar. What makes a tournament "major" is not just that teams cross time zones to play in it, but also that these teams are among the very best. Thanks to the advent of high school rankings—most notably, the weekly compilation in USA Today—high school basketball has gone national, with everyone gunning for No. 1.

The tournaments foster and capitalize on this growing intersectional competitiveness. St. Anthony's has been USA Today's No. 1-ranked team every week this season; the Friars didn't hurt their standing by beating No. 5 Miami Senior 68-55 in the final of the Florida Shootout and No. 2 Flint Hill Prep of Oakton, Va., 64-45 for the King Cotton title. A blue-chip team like St. Anthony's is avidly courted by the tournaments. It receives invitations more than a year in advance, its air fare and lodging are covered, and its players are entertained with banquets and sightseeing outings.