He’s Not Hooping It Up, but Finds Himself in Rough

Had things worked out differently, Brent Musburger would be knee-deep in the NCAA basketball tournament.

Instead, he’s in Rancho Mirage at the Dinah Shore women’s golf tournament.

“I had nine years with the NCAA tournament, either anchoring or doing play-by-play,” Musburger said. “It’s a great event and I’m following it, but I don’t sit around and yearn to be involved.”

Musburger, you may recall, was fired by CBS on the eve of the 1990 NCAA championship game in Denver.

“It’s now just a distant memory,” said Musburger, who was hired by ABC shortly thereafter. He became the host of ABC’s golf coverage this year.

“When Dennis Swanson (ABC Sports president) asked me if I’d like to cover golf, it took all of about 10 seconds for me to say yes,” Musburger said. “The people in golf are great to work with, the events are great, and in Terry Jastrow we have the best golf producer in the business.”

The Dinah Shore is Musburger’s third golf event and his first women’s tournament. To get ready, he spent the previous week at an LPGA tournament in Phoenix even though he wasn’t working it.

“I wanted to get a feel for the women’s tour, and also meet with (LPGA Commissioner) Charles Mechem,” Musburger said.

While Musburger was at CBS, he had a high visibility level, considerably higher than he has had at ABC.

“My visibility at the bank is what I care about,” he said. “As long as I can pay the mortgages, I’m happy.”

Move over Billy Packer, here comes Jerry Tarkanian.

The recently retired Nevada Las Vegas coach was hired this week as the commentator for Clipper telecasts on SportsChannel. Is this the start of a new career?

“If I enjoy this, it would be a great way to stay close to basketball,” Tarkanian said.

Asked whose style he likes, Tarkanian mentioned Packer.

“Dick Vitale is a friend of mine, but I’m not going to be like Vitale, I can guarantee you that,” he said.

Unfortunately for SportsChannel, Tarkanian’s debut Thursday night was opposite the UCLA-New Mexico State game.

A good time to check out Tarkanian is next Thursday, when SportsChannel will make the Clippers’ 4:30 p.m. game against the Cavaliers in Cleveland available to all affiliate customers at no charge.

Add Tarkanian: He wasn’t the only candidate for the Clipper job. SportsChannel also inquired about the availability of Magic Johnson. Lon Rosen, Johnson’s agent, said there were too many scheduling conflicts.

KMPC update: Len Weiner, KMPC’s new program director, has been busy sifting through four boxes of audition tapes from job applicants.

The tentative date for KMPC to switch to its all-sports format is April 26. A few of the candidates to join the station, besides Jim Lampley, are Todd Christensen, Steve Garvey and Steve Somers. Now at New York’s WFAN, Somers was at KMPC and Channel 4 in the late 1970s.

Joel Meyers, the host of KMPC’s “Sportsline” talk show before going to NBC, has told friends he would like to come back in some capacity. With a relatively light workload from NBC, he figures that he also has time to work at KMPC.

Meyers is also SportsChannel’s Clipper play-by-play announcer.

Boxing beat: The sport continues to thrive without Mike Tyson.

Even though it went up against the NCAA basketball tournament, last Friday’s pay-per-view fight between Iran Barkley and Thomas Hearns at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas drew an estimated 175,000 subscribers.

That’s a projected figure since it takes a while to collect all the data. If it is right, the pay-per-view gross would be $4,336,250.

Even at $24.95, those who bought the TVKO Barkley-Hearns fight got their money’s worth. Barkley, the winner by a split decision, and Hearns pounded on each other for 12 rounds.

The fight gave boxing a timely boost, since there are four pay-per-view bouts on the horizon.

First come three $19.95 fights--Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini vs. Greg Haugen next Friday at Reno, Bobby Czyz vs. Donny Lalonde on May 8 at the Riviera in Las Vegas and a TVKO fight, Michael Moorer vs. Bert Cooper, on May 15 at Atlantic City, N.J.

Then there’s Larry Holmes vs. Evander Holyfield at Caesars on June 19, a $35.95 fight.

TV-Radio Notes

Jim Hill scored by having UCLA’s Tracy Murray in the studio on his first Sunday night back at Channel 2. Problem was, Hill’s wrap-up show didn’t start until after 11:40 and was limited to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Channel 7 gave Rick Lozano 30 minutes. . . . To celebrate his return, Hill arranged for a caterer to bring in dinner for everyone in the Channel 2 newsroom Monday night. . . . Former Channel 2 sportscaster Keith Olbermann, who has been a regular on ESPN radio, will make his ESPN television debut tonight on the 11:30 edition of “SportsCenter.” He will switch to the regular spot with Dan Patrick on the 8:30 edition on April 5.

The average national rating for the first four days of the NCAA basketball tournament was a 6.8, down slightly from the 7.0 at this point last year. A 12.6 for a second-round game between Georgetown and Nevada Las Vegas gave last year’s tournament a ratings boost. . . . ABC got off to a good start last weekend with the World League. The game, an overtime victory by the London Monarchs over the New York-New Jersey Knights, was a good one, and the average overnight rating for the nation’s 25 largest markets was a 2.8. An NBA game on NBC, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Indiana Pacers, got a 3.3 overnight rating, but the football game beat the basketball game in nine of the 25 markets. In Los Angeles, the NBA game won, 4.0 to 2.4.

The second round of the Dinah Shore is on ESPN today at 1 p.m., with the final two rounds on ABC Saturday at 4:30 p.m., a delay of three hours, and Sunday at 3 p.m., a delay of one hour. Working with host Brent Musburger on the telecasts are analysts Steve Melnyk and Judy Rankin, with Bob Rosburg, Mark Rolfing and Rhonda Glenn reporting from the Mission Hills course. Essayist Jack Whitaker also is on hand. . . . The Players Championship at Ponte Vedra, Fla., is on USA today, delayed at 4 p.m., and live on NBC Saturday at noon and Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

CBS will have to black out the Women’s NCAA Final Four, to be held at the Sports Arena April 4-5, unless all 12,000 tickets are sold. So far, about 9,000 have been sold. . . . ESPN is covering this weekend’s Davis Cup matches between the United States and Czechoslovakia. The first match will be shown live at 8 a.m. today, the rest tape-delayed at 10 tonight and 9 Saturday and Sunday nights. . . . On this week’s U.S. Alpine Skiing Championships, ESPN is using a new camera that is mounted on a cable and able to follow racers down the hill.

Recommended viewing: The story of Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry and their friendship that began when they were kids in Los Angeles is the subject of a Channel 11 special Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The subject has been a bit overdone, but this show is a good one. Vin Scully is the host. . . . SportsChannel is the cable carrier of Angel telecasts, but a new weekly magazine show, “Angels Clubhouse,” will make its debut on Prime Ticket on April 5 at 7 p.m., preceding a Laker game telecast. John Sevano, the Angels’ director of creative services, went to Prime Ticket instead of SportsChannel so that the show would get more exposure. Prime Ticket will produce the show, and Alan Massengale will be the host. Lynn Woodard, SportsChannel’s general manager, said: “I have mixed emotions about it. Prime Ticket is our competitor, but on the other hand, any exposure for the Angels is good for us.”

NBC is covering the World Figure Skating Championships, beginning tonight with delayed coverage of the men’s finals. There will be taped pairs and dance coverage on “SportsWorld” Saturday at 3 p.m., and a two-hour show Sunday at 4 p.m. will include the taped pairs finals and live coverage of the women’s finals. The announcers are Dick Enberg and choreographer Sandra Bezic. Tom Hammond will conduct the interviews.

Radio talk shows: Michael Miller, former Cathedral High basketball coach who is now an assistant at Cal State San Bernardino, has a new show, “Talk to the Coach,” on KIEV (870) Sundays from 6 to 7 p.m. . . . Irv Kaze, longtime sports executive who was a senior administrator for the Raiders for eight years, will have a show on KIEV every Friday, 7 to 8 p.m., beginning next week. . . . Much-traveled Peter Vent is back at KMNY (1600) after a three-year absence, doing “Sports Weekend” on Saturdays and Sundays, 4 to 5 p.m. each day.