CBS Is at Right Place at Right Time

CBS might have fallen asleep at the switch last weekend in covering the NCAA tournament, but the network was on top of things Thursday night.

The key move came when CBS left the North Carolina-Arkansas game in order to pick up the final 2:15 of Connecticut’s improbable last-second victory over Clemson.

Then CBS switched back to North Carolina-Arkansas, and, after UCLA’s loss to Duke, CBS gave us the end of Texas’ victory over Xavier.

Early in the evening, 83% of the country was getting North Carolina-Arkansas and 17% was getting Connecticut-Clemson.

When Connecticut was ahead by 19 points, only 12% of the country was getting that game, with 88% getting North Carolina-Arkansas when it was close.

But later, as Clemson closed in on Connecticut and Arkansas pulled away from North Carolina, every state except Texas, Arkansas and North Carolina got to see the Huskies pull out a one-point victory.

CBS’ Mike Francesa offered an interesting stat during halftime of the UCLA-Duke game.

He pointed out Scott Burrell, the Connecticut player who threw the pass to Tate George, is a baseball pitcher with a 95 m.p.h. fastball.

Burrell was good enough to be a first-round draft pick of the Seattle Mariners in June, but opted to go to Connecticut rather than sign with the Mariners.

Also, it was a good move by KCBS to bring in USC Coach George Raveling to provide analysis on Thursday night’s postgame show.

Commentator Dick Vitale on ESPN losing its share of the NCAA tournament to CBS next season: “This is not ESPN’s obituary. We’ll be involved all year with a smorgasbord of coverage.

“We’ll have the appetizer, and (CBS) will have the main course. I’ll be chef Dickie V., setting the table for Billy P.”

Billy P., of course, is Billy Packer, who will be working with Brent Musburger on the co-main events on CBS tonight--Loyola Marymount vs. Alabama at 5:25 p.m., followed by Nevada Las Vegas vs. Ball State.

Was Meldrick Taylor robbed on Saturday when referee Richard Steele stopped his fight against Julio Cesar Chavez with two seconds left in the final round?

A lot of knowledgeable boxing observers, after further review, have said no, that Steele did the right thing.

But ABC boxing commentator Alex Wallau, who was at ringside, said Steele should not have stopped the fight. “I don’t blame Richard Steele for not knowing how much time was left,” he said, “but I think he should have judged Taylor on how he looked when he went down and how he looked when he got up. That’s the important thing, not what he says or doesn’t say.

“I thought Taylor looked OK. He knew where he was. He grabbed for the rope as he went down. I don’t put a lot of stock in asking a fighter how he feels. How he appears is much more important.

“Steele should have stepped back and waited to see how Taylor reacted before stopping the fight.”

Wallau said he asked Steele after the fight if he saw the red lights, which signal that only 10 seconds are left in a round. Steele told Wallau he did not.

Interestingly, a review of the HBO coverage showed that five seconds remained when Steele signaled the fight was over, not two as announced.

HBO commentator Larry Merchant agreed with Wallau, saying that Steele should not have stopped the fight when he did.

“Steele made a narrow, technical, by-the-book decision,” Merchant said. “Taylor, who had shown no previous signs of distress, should have been given the benefit of doubt, but he didn’t get it.

“Steele should have used better discretion. It’s like a Highway Patrol officer stopping a driver for doing 85 m.p.h., then finding out the driver’s wife is about to give birth.

“If he follows the book, the CHP officer gives the driver a speeding ticket. But more than likely he shows discretion and lets the driver continue on.”

Add fight: ABC has the replay rights and will show the bout on “Wide World of Sports” on March 31 after a live John Mugabi fight in Tampa, Fla.

Wallau said ABC will try to devote as much time as possible to the Chavez-Taylor replay.

“We go on the air at 4:30 p.m., and the Mugabi fight is scheduled to start at 4:33,” Wallau said. “We can’t get a much quicker start than that.

“Even if the Mugabi fight goes the distance, we’ll be able to show five rounds,” Wallau said.

That’s hardly enough, though.

It’s too bad that HBO doesn’t have the replay rights. The pay-cable network would be able to devote two hours to the fight, which it deserves.

Last add fight: Merchant and HBO blow-by-blow announcer Jim Lampley have taken some heat for coming across as pro-Taylor.

“I’m not going to cop a plea and totally disagree with that,” Merchant said. “Maybe we didn’t give Chavez enough credit along the way.

“But the story line of this fight until the very end was that Taylor was beating this great champion.”

With a little over a minute left in the fight, Lampley said, “It doesn’t appear at this moment that Chavez has the stuff to get it done.”

Of course, Lampley was proven wrong.

Said Merchant at the time of the knockdown, “If he gets up in time, he probably wins the fight.”

He got up, but the fight was stopped anyway.

Lampley, believing the pictures told the story, said nothing when Taylor went down, then went wild when Steele signaled the fight was over.

“Unbelievable! Unbelievable!” he screamed at viewers. “You’re going to watch Lou Duva go crazy now, you’re going to watch Lou Duva go absolutely berserk.”

But we didn’t see Duva do anything. It wasn’t until later that Duva began protesting.

“This is one of the most unusual calls in the history of the sport,” Lampley said.

It will be debated for years.

TV-Radio Notes

HBO’s next fight will be Michael Nunn vs. Marlon Starling at the Mirage in Las Vegas on April 14. . . . Showtime will televise the April 28 bout between Thomas Hearns and Michael Olajide. A twist here is that, for some cable subscribers who don’t have Showtime, the fight will be offered on a pay-per-view basis. Those who sign up will also get a month of Showtime on a trial basis.

Due to time restraints and technical difficulties, plans have fallen through to announce the winner of the Los Angeles Athletic Club’s John Wooden Award on national television on April 1. The winner will now be announced on April 4 at a noon news conference at the club, with a banquet to be held that night at the Biltmore Hotel. Votes are due by Monday.

Channel 4 will televise the start and finish of the ninth annual Long Beach Marathon on May 6 and will break into regular programming with five-minute reports along the way. Fred Roggin will be the host of the coverage, with Nancy Ditz serving as one of the commentators. Another commentator will be named later. Phil Olsman, who has produced all five of the Los Angeles Marathon telecasts on Channel 13, will produce this telecast.

ESPN opens its spring training coverage next Monday with the Cleveland Indians playing the San Francisco Giants at noon. . . . ESPN’s seven-nights-a-week “Baseball Tonight” program began this week. The show will air at 8 p.m. unless preempted by a game telecast. When that’s the case, it will usually follow the game.

Channel 5 will televise the Freeway Series game on April 6 from Anaheim Stadium, with Joe Torre and Reggie Jackson reporting. . . . SportsChannel will televise the Dodgers’ season opener against the San Diego Padres on April 9 at 1:30 p.m., with Joel Meyers and Ron Cey reporting. The Angels will be on SportsChannel the following night, with Joe Garagiola and Torre. SportsChannel will still televise 35 Dodger games and 35 Angel games this season. Two Dodger telecasts, originally scheduled for next week, will have to be made up.

The first CBS telecast will be the Dodgers’ game against the Astros at Houston on April 14, as originally scheduled.