THE ELEVATOR

by Ron Kantowski

Wednesday, June 21, 2006 | 7:17 a.m.

GOING UP

Italee Lucas

The Centennial High girls basketball standout showed the USA Basketball staff there are at least two ways to spell "Italy." But only one way to make the girls under-18 national basketball team. By showing how we do it in Southern Nevada, Lucas, a senior-to-be, will be the youngest player on our nation's premier girls basketball team when it hosts the FIBC Americas tournament in Colorado Springs June 28-July 2.

Kurt and Kyle Busch

The Fast Guys from Durango High have now gone two weeks since making anybody in NASCAR mad. I think their record is three weeks.

Joe Burleson

The veteran umpire from Las Vegas is working his third College World Series, this one as a crew chief. When he's not calling balls and strikes, Burleson owns and operates Burley Pest Control. But Miami coach Jim Morris probably thinks the first two words on Burleson's business card would suffice after Burleson kicked him out of Rice's 3-2 victory over the Hurricanes on Monday for arguing a check-swing call.

GOING DOWN

Nickname police

Last summer, we were fearing hurricanes. Today, we're celebrating them. Maybe I'm like the nickname police and making way too much of this. But I wonder if the relatives of the 52 North Carolina residents who were killed by Hurricane Floyd in 1999, or the tens of thousands who lost their homes or had them ravaged by the storm, still get queasy when they see the eye on the Carolina Hurricanes' hockey sweaters.

Las Vegas 41s

Our triple-A team has lost seven games in a row. But with 10 players who began the season here now playing in Los Angeles, a losing skid or two was to be expected.

Winky Wrong

Actually, his name is Ronald "Winky" Wright. What was wrong was his tirade after his middleweight title fight against Jermain Taylor was scored a draw Saturday. While Wright showed he still has a heck of a jab, boxing fans should hope the verbal ones he tossed around after a competitive fight with the power-punching Taylor doesn't preclude them from doing it again.