Devils, Heels Replace Winnie the Pooh

So you thought putting the Winter Olympics on tape was bad? Well, what ABC was planning until midday Thursday was worse.

The regular-season college basketball game of the year, No. 3 North Carolina at No. 1 Duke on Saturday, was not going to be televised in Los Angeles.

It is now, live at 11 a.m., but only because of the efforts of Channel 7’s general manager, Arnie Kleiner, and others at the station who responded to public pressure.

“We got a zillion calls,” station spokeswoman Verla Rammel said.

The ABC children’s programming division is reluctant to give up any of its Saturday morning time block to the sports division, so most West Coast ABC stations still won’t get the game.

“We made a one-time-only exception for KABC,” network spokesman Mark Mandel said. “Generally, we have to respect the other divisions within ABC and their time periods.”

No such problem at CBS. It is showing the Pacific 10 game between Stanford and Arizona at 10 a.m. Saturday.

WHERE WAS THE CRITICISM?

ESPN commentator Quinn Buckner found himself in an awkward situation Tuesday night. In a game against Illinois, Indiana Coach Bobby Knight threw an all-time tantrum, even for him, and Buckner, who played for Knight, just couldn’t criticize his former coach.

A more objective commentator should have said that even though Knight had apparently been wronged by getting a technical for coming out on the floor to check on an injured player, such behavior, which led to an ejection, is still out of line.

When play-by-play announcer Dave Barnett asked Buckner to rate Knight’s tantrum on the Richter scale, Buckner only said, “I don’t know. The whole circumstance is a little odd.”

All Buckner complained about was that the officials had missed an obvious goaltending call, which was Knight’s initial complaint. Buckner also said Knight’s antics as he walked off were designed to get the “fans into the game.”

The situation called for stronger commentary.

ADD COLLEGE BASKETBALL

What is billed as Championship Week on ESPN and ESPN2 begins Saturday and runs through March 8. During that span, ESPN will televise 38 games and ESPN2 will show 22. . . . Fox Sports West 2 has added the UCLA-Arizona State game at Pauley Pavilion next Thursday to its schedule. The Fox Sports Net game that night on Fox Sports West will be USC-Arizona. The UCLA-Arizona game on Saturday, March 7, will be a Fox Sports Net game carried by Fox Sports West. . . . Fox Sports Net and its 22 affiliates will televise the presentation of the John Wooden Award at the Los Angeles Athletic Club as a half-hour show on April 3 live at 4 p.m.

BASEBALL IS HERE

The Dodgers’ new flagship station, AM 1150, is carrying all spring training games, whereas Angel flagship KRLA is broadcasting weekend games only. . . . Word is, the Angels will do something soon to honor Bob Starr, who spent 15 years with them during two stints and 41 years in broadcasting. Starr retired recently because of lingering effects of pneumonia. He deserves some kind of send-off.

The Angels didn’t exactly hire a big name to replace Starr. Brian Barnhart was working as a radio talk-show host in Oklahoma City. He might work out fine and his audition went well, but Barnhart hasn’t done baseball regularly since 1994, when he was calling Oklahoma City 89er games.

Fox Sports West will televise 40 Angel games this season. The Angels don’t move over to the yet-to-be-launched ESPN West until next year. . . . Channel 9 will televise 51 Angel games, including the home opener April 1 against the New York Yankees. . . . Fox Sports West 2 and Channel 5 have the Dodgers. . . . CNN’s “Sporting Life With Jim Huber” Sunday at 6:30 p.m. features a day in the life of Toronto’s Roger Clemens. . . . The FX cable network, which did Monday night games last season, will instead televise a Saturday night game of the week for 26 weeks.

CALM AFTER THE STORM

Now that the Winter Olympics are over, CBS this weekend goes back to doing what it does best--live golf. CBS is carrying the final two rounds of the Nissan Open from Valencia Country Club under the leadership of respected golf producer Lance Barrow. The usual CBS cast of announcers, headed by Jim Nantz, Ken Venturi, Gary McCord and Peter Kostis, will be on hand. . . . The producer of the USA network early-round coverage is newcomer Kevin Landy, who came over from Fox Sports Net. . . . Bill Macatee, who, like Nantz, is fresh off his return from Nagano, is anchoring USA’s coverage. . . . A reminder for DirecTV subscribers: USA’s coverage today will be on live at 1 p.m. because DirecTV uses an East Coast feed. On cable and elsewhere, the USA coverage is on, delayed at 4 p.m. . . . Speaking of DirecTV, it is no longer calling itself a satellite service. It is now presenting itself as “digital entertainment.”

SHORT WAVES

CBS has hired play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan, formerly of Fox, as an NFL announcer. The network is also talking with ESPN’s Mike Patrick. ESPN hopes to retain Patrick. . . . ESPN is said to be considering a three-man NFL booth. Possible additions include Paul Maguire and Brent Jones. . . . Pat Haden might end up doing Notre Dame football for NBC but is still in line for a CBS commentating job. . . . Haden was the master of ceremonies Tuesday when Dick Enberg was presented his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ann Meyers also spoke, and Bill Walton and John Wooden made surprise appearances.

CNN-SI, beefing up its Los Angeles bureau, has hired Tom Rinaldi as its West Coast correspondent. Rinaldi has been working at a Sacramento TV station. . . . Hot rumor around New York is that Marv Albert will be back on the Madison Square Garden network by April, only as a sports anchor rather than a play-by-play announcer, replacing Bob Page on the “SportsDesk” nightly news program. MSG officials are not denying the rumor.

IN CLOSING

Brace yourself. NBC’s Summer Olympics coverage from Sydney, Australia, in 2000 figures to be on videotape too, because of an 18-hour time difference (Pacific time). But NBC will have two cable partners, CNBC and MSNBC, and if they are used properly, there may be some live coverage.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

What Los Angeless Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for Feb. 21-22 SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Winter Olympics (prime time) 2 12.6 22 Winter Olympics (daytime) 2 5.3 16 Golf: Tucson Chrysler Classic 4 1.6 4 College basketball: Arizona at Oregon 7 1.3 4 College basketball: Boston College at Georgetown 4 1.0 3

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SUNDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share Winter Olympics (prime time) 2 11.4 17 Pro basketball: Lakers at Orlando 4 8.9 20 Pro basketball: Houston at Chicago 4 6.2 15 Winter Olympics (daytime) 2 6.8 16 College basketball: UCLA at Duke 7 3.5 8 Golf: Tucson Chrysler Open 7 1.6 4 College basketball: Indiana at Michigan 2 1.7 4

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Note: Each rating point represents 50,092 L.A. households.