And the Winner Is . . . Certainly Not the Viewer at Home

It’ll be the NCAA championship basketball game vs. the Academy Awards Monday night. The basketball game will start at 5 p.m. on CBS, the Academy Awards at 6 p.m. on ABC.

Couldn’t the conflict have been avoided?

“Not really,” said CBS spokesman Mark Carlson. “The NCAA sets the date (for the title game), and we have to go along with it.”

However, CBS was able to get a jump on the Oscar show by picking the 5 o’clock start for the game. “We figure if you start watching the game, you’ll say with it until it’s over,” Carlson said.

The last time the two events overlapped, in 1982, the Academy Awards won the ratings battle by 12 points. And that was the year that Michael Jordan-led North Carolina beat Georgetown by one point.

Only twice before that were the two events held on the same night, in 1976 and 1977.

Coverage of Saturday’s semifinals will begin at 12:30 p.m. with Providence-Syracuse. Nevada Las Vegas-Indiana is scheduled to start about 2:45 p.m.

Boxing beat: The big event the following Monday, April 6, will be the Marvelous Marvin Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard fight at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas.

There is still some confusion about where to watch it.

First of all, it’s available in 779,000 homes from Santa Barbara to San Diego--about one-eighth of the market--on pay per view.

If you are a subscriber to a cable system with pay-per-view capabilities, you’ve probably received something in the mail asking you to pay $35 or $40 for the fight. The telecast can be ordered by phone until it begins at 6 p.m. The main event is scheduled for about 8 p.m.

If you’re unsure if the fight is available, call your cable company.

The pay-per-view telecast is a co-promotion of Choice Channel and Prime Ticket, but that does not mean it will be shown on the Prime Ticket channel. It will be shown on your cable system’s pay-per-view channel.

The other way to see the fight is on closed-circuit.

The Universal Amphitheater will show the fight on three large screens and charge $40. The Beverly Theaters in Beverly Hills and Redondo Beach are charging $45.

The Long Beach Arena, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and the Anaheim Convention Center will also carry the fight, with tickets scaled from $30 to $40.

The Country Club in Reseda and the Red Lion Inn in Ontario have also made arrangements to carry the fight.

But don’t count on seeing the fight in Southland sports bars. Rick Kulis, the president of Choice Channel, said that to protect the cable companies and closed-circuit establishments, the telecast generally is not being sold to sports bars.

Add boxing: The biggest previous pay-per-view event was the Hagler-Thomas Hearns fight April 15, 1985, when Hagler scored a third-round knockout. That fight, which cost $25, drew 73,000 subscribers in Southern California.

Kulis is expecting as many as 120,000 subscribers for Hagler-Leonard.

That Hagler-Hearns fight will be shown on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” Saturday, along with same-day coverage of the 12-round lightweight bout between Pernell Whitaker and Roger Mayweather at Norfolk, Va.

Also, ABC’s Alex Wallau will interview Hearns.

Add pay-per-view: Dodgervision, beginning its third season, has expanded its network from 47 Southland cable companies to 52. Last year, Dodgervision had an average of 15,300 subscribers a game, an increase of 128% over the first year.

Walter Kalb, executive in charge of Dodgervision, hopes to more than double the number of subscribers again this season.

A 25-game season package of home games costs $79.95, the same as last year. Individual games are $5.95.

As a promotional ploy, Dodgervision is offering a baseball, a special pin, two tickets, a commemorative poster and, in honor of Dodger Stadium’s 25th year, a can of Dodger diamond dust, which of course is high on everybody’s list of things to have.

Kalb said the dirt, taken from the infield, was shipped to Massachusetts for packaging and analyzing, and then shipped back to Los Angeles. It comes complete with a certificate of authenticity from Manager Tom Lasorda.

Dodgervision will show the April 5 Freeway Series game between the Dodgers and the Angels free on all cable systems that carry the service.

Also, Channel 11 is planning to televise the Dodgers’ home game against San Francisco Friday night, April 10, as part of the celebration of Dodger Stadium’s 25th anniversary, and NBC will televise the Dodger-Giant game the next day.

Angelsvision, a six-game experiment last season, has been discontinued, although the San Diego Padres’ pay-per-view package continues to thrive.

The Padres offer a 41-game deal for $140 or two separate 20-game packages for $80 each.

TV-Radio Notes Today’s second round of the Tournament Players Championship golf tournament will be televised, delayed, at 4 p.m. by USA, with CBS showing 15 minutes of highlights at 11:30 p.m. CBS will televise the final two rounds Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. and noon, respectively. . . . Add golf: The first two rounds of the Dinah Shore women’s tournament next Thursday and Friday will be televised by ESPN, and NBC will carry the final two rounds April 4-5. The Masters April 9-12 will be jointly televised by USA and CBS. . . . Tonight’s NCAA women’s semifinals will be televised by ESPN at 4 p.m. (Cal State Long Beach-Tennessee) and 6 p.m. (Texas-Louisiana Tech). The women’s final will be televised Sunday at 10 a.m. by CBS. . . . ESPN’s Bob Ley, John Saunders and Dick Vitale are in New Orleans to provide live reports, interviews and features on the men’s Final Four for the network’s SportsCenter shows. ESPN also will televise a special championship game preview Monday at 4:30 p.m.

The highest-rated NCAA final was the 1979 game between Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team and Larry Bird’s Indiana State team. The game, televised by NBC, drew a 24.1 national Nielsen rating. Next best was the 1985 Villanova-Georgetown game, which drew a 23.3. . . . Included in the mounds of self-serving press material put out by CBS for the Final Four is a listing of the birthdays of all the network’s basketball announcers. Of note is that Brent Musburger, Billy Packer, Verne Lundquist and Gary Bender were all born in 1940. . . . KRTH (930) in Los Angeles and KPOP (1360) in San Diego are carrying CBS radio’s Final Four coverage. . . . KNX (1070) will carry CBS radio’s five-part baseball preview Monday through Friday, nightly at 7:45. John Rooney is the host.

Actress Felice Schachter, sort of a combination of Rona Barrett and Elvira, is Prime Ticket’s NHL “gossip reporter.” She was first seen Feb. 24 during a King-Winnipeg game and returns Saturday night during the second intermission of the Kings’ game with Calgary. . . . If you haven’t seen “Road to Superfight,” with Larry Merchant and Barry Tompkins, on HBO, this excellent Marvelous Marvin Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard preview will be shown by Channel 4 Sunday at 3 p.m. . . . Cox Cable in San Diego is offering its own fight preview, “Countdown to Knockdown.” First air date is Monday at 7 p.m. . . . ESPN boxing commentator Al Bernstein will be performing at Caesars Palace’s Olympic Lounge April 3-5, singing with vocalist Jill Eisenberg. “This is no whim,” Bernstein said. “I’ve been edging toward more entertainment projects, both writing and performing.”

The Chicago Cubs’ Harry Caray, who hasn’t missed a regular-season game in 44 years, won’t be behind the microphone on opening day this season. He says he needs more time to fully recover from a stroke he suffered last month. . . . The April 5 Long Beach Grand Prix will be televised April 12 by NBC, and the April 4 Toyota Pro Celebrity race will be televised April 11 by ESPN. Long Beach radio station KNAC-FM (105.5) will provide pre-race reports next week daily at 7:35 a.m. and 5:35 p.m. The number of reports by announcers Jimmy (The Saint) Christopher and Bill Banks will increase during the April 4-5 weekend. . . . Attention prep basketball fans: On April 12, ABC will televise the McDonald’s All-American game at Philadelphia, which showcases 25 of the nation’s best seniors. Scheduled to play in the East-West all-star game are Sean Higgins of Fairfax and Brian Williams of Santa Monica St. Monica. . . . Higgins and Gahr High’s Molly Wampler will be among those on ESPN’s “Scholastic Sports America” Saturday at 3:30 p.m.