Notes on a Scorecard - Feb. 27, 1992

If Mike Tyson had the courage of Desiree Washington, he still would be heavyweight champion. . . .

March Madness: The UCLA-Duke game, Los Angeles Marathon and final round of the L.A. Open are on the agenda Sunday, the first day of March. . . .

The Pacific 10 Conference still doesn’t get much respect. Five teams with lesser records were ranked ahead of No. 13 USC in the latest Associated Press college basketball poll and two with lesser records were ranked ahead of No. 4 UCLA. . . .

USC will have a legitimate home-court advantage against UCLA tonight at the Sports Arena. Of the 15,877 tickets, it is estimated that 12,000 have been sold to Trojan students, alumni and fans. . . .

For the first time in years, there was a basketball pep rally on the USC campus. . . .

You have to love the attitude of Tiger Woods, 16, who says he has been too busy practicing and improving his game to be nervous about becoming the youngest player to compete in a PGA Tour event when he tees off in the L.A. Open today. . . .

Some people in the Dodger organization say that Pedro Martinez, 20, already is a better pitcher than his older brother Ramon. . . .

Pedro is scheduled to begin the season at Albuquerque of the Pacific Coast League, but it might not be too long before he is called up to the National League. . . .

Tom Candiotti, the knuckleball pitcher, took several catchers’ mitts with him to Vero Beach, Fla. . . .

Old friends Darryl Strawberry and Eric Davis have adjoining lockers at Dodgertown and will at Dodger Stadium, too. . . .

Despite all the arm problems suffered by the San Francisco Giants in recent years, Manager Roger Craig has given his pitchers a seminar on the split-finger fastball. . . .

Mo Vaughn arrived at spring training 25 pounds lighter than at the end of last season and then learned that the Boston Red Sox first base job was his after Carlos Quintana suffered a broken arm in an auto accident. . . .

A fight between two young Southern California boxers that would fill a lot of seats at the Forum: World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight champion Genaro Hernandez vs. North American Boxing Federation champion Gabriel Ruelas. . . .

A 12-round heavyweight championship elimination bout between Razor Ruddock and Riddick Bowe could be in the works. Dean Lohuis, U.S. representative on the World Boxing Council ratings committee, says he ranks Ruddock and Bowe even. . . .

“Magic,” a book about you-know-who that was written by Richard Levin, has been reissued in paperback. . . .

Look-alikes: Former Philadelphia 76er star Luke Jackson and Syracuse forward Luke Jackson Jr. . . .

What made Utah’s victory over the Clippers at the Sports Arena Tuesday night unusual was that the visiting team shot 36 free throws and the home team shot nine. . . .

An assistant coach who deserves to become a head coach soon is Brad Holland of UCLA. Those interested include the University of Wisconsin. . . .

There was only one fight in the seven NHL games Tuesday night. . . .

That pay-per-view event matching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving on Friday night will consist of five-minute quarters. There will be a three-point line--at NCAA, rather than NBA, distance--and a 12-second shot clock. . . .

Once again, the finals of women’s figure skating was the highest-rated Winter Olympics TV show. . . .

John Robinson is on jury duty. . . .

Sandy Hawley, who is riding at Santa Anita before returning to his native Canada next month, has been free of skin cancer for the past five years. He credits vaccine injections and a vegetarian diet. . . .

What I like most about the Los Angeles Marathon is that it allows the recreational jogger an opportunity to compete in a world-class athletic event. . . .

Kendall McCarthy, 39, is an inspector for the Los Angeles Fire Department, a part-time actor and divorced father of two children, ages 3 1/2 and 2. He played baseball in high school and junior college. Sunday, he will run 26 miles 385 yards through the streets of Los Angeles. . . .

“I finished in 5 hours and 20 minutes last year,” said McCarthy, who came home 3 hours 10 minutes after winner Mark Plaatjes. “But I hadn’t trained properly. This year, I have. I hope to cut my time by close to an hour.” . . .

He has run 45 miles per week in the hills behind Elysian Park for the past few months in preparation for the big day. . . .

“When the pain comes and I start to cramp, when I hit the wall at about the 18-mile mark, I’ll think about my kids, my son Corbin and my daughter Kristen,” McCarthy said. “That will get me through it.”