Aikman-Marino Duel Is Not Confined to Field

T roy Aikman versus Dan Marino?

That could be the quarterback matchup Thanksgiving Day when Miami visits Dallas, if Marino is judged fit enough to play.

But we’ve already seen it once this season.

Appearing last week in Beverly Hills at the Zegna Games, with proceeds going to Cure Autism Now, Aikman and Marino matched arms in a video football game. Aikman completed 11 of 20 passes, falling short of Marino’s 12 of 20.

Neither, however, could beat a contestant who does not even play in the NFL.

John Elway completed 15 of 20.

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If Louisiana Tech could have rearranged the schedule, its women’s basketball team would have traveled to Los Angeles to play USC on Friday--about three hours before USC and Louisiana Tech meet in football at the Coliseum. . . .

That would have been an attractive doubleheader, except to the Trojan women. The Lady Techsters are ranked second in the nation. USC instead will play Creighton on Friday. . . .

If Trojan defensive backs are seeking solace before they face Bulldog quarterback Tim Rattay, they might turn to his brother. Chris Rattay is a spiritual advisor on the USC campus. . . .

Paul Hackett says Tim Rattay is like Purdue’s Drew Brees, only better. . . .

Shouldn’t Louisiana Tech’s men’s teams be known as the Gentlemen Techsters? . . .

Stanford’s Tyrone Willingham will be the first African-American head coach in the Rose Bowl game. . . .

Willingham and Wisconsin Coach Barry Alvarez share the same birthday, Dec. 30. . . .

Texas A&M; and Texas students are petitioning ABC to televise the halftime ceremony of Friday’s game between the Aggies and Longhorns at College Station because it will include a tribute to the 12 young people killed while building the traditional bonfire at Texas A&M.; . . .

Director Ron Shelton (“Bull Durham,” “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Tin Cup”) and actress Lolita Davidovich had their first child Friday, a girl named Valentina. . . .

You know you’re old when: I wrote a story in 1979 for the Chicago Sun-Times about Terry Cummings, then at Chicago Carver High, signing with DePaul. Now I’m writing about his son, T.J., committing to UCLA. . . .

Bruin Coach Steve Lavin did one of his best recruiting jobs on Cummings, a 6-foot-9 forward from suburban Chicago who was presumed Duke bound. . . .

The Collins twins from Harvard-Westlake High, Jarron and Jason, have come up huge inside for Stanford in the absence of injured Mark Madsen. . . .

But they will be tested Saturday in the Wooden Classic at the Arrowhead Pond against Auburn’s Nigerian center, Mamadou N’diaye, the best college player in Pete Newell’s camp for big men last summer in Hawaii, and Kris Porter. . . .

No concept since Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has been as difficult to grasp as Phil Jackson’s triangle offense. It does, however, have a couple of options that even I understand. . . .

One is the freeze option, which calls for the ball to go inside to Shaquille O’Neal, who then operates while everyone else stands and watches. If it seems familiar, that’s because it’s the same basic play the Lakers have been running since O’Neal arrived. . . .

The other is the bail-out option, which means that, when all other options fail, the ball goes to a player who can use his individual skills to bail the offense out. . . .

That player in Chicago was Michael Jordan, who made the triangle work even when it didn’t work. Here, Jackson hopes it will be Kobe Bryant. . . .

I’d take 5-foot-3 jockey Kent Desormeaux over 7-1 Shaq if fouls were unlimited and called tightly. . . .

Desormeaux was an excellent ballhandler and shooter in high school in Louisiana who could probably maneuver himself into some open shots. He doesn’t have to be Don Nelson to know that all he has to do when Shaq has the ball is foul him. . . .

I’d rather see that on pay-per-view than any heavyweight fight today. . . .

Play in MLS has improved dramatically since the first season, but the officiating remains terrible. . . .

Carl Lewis was the best athlete of the last half of the century, if for no other reason than because he gave us an idea how great Jesse Owens was in the first half of the century.

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It’s nice that Darrell Miller, the Angels’ inner city scouting director, is meeting with the pope, but the team already had a pipeline upstairs.

As a player, Mike Scioscia, the new Angel manager, was represented by Richie Phillips. Phillips’ wife, Ellen, was a close friend of Scioscia’s mother, Florence, who died of cancer in 1983.

With Scioscia at bat against the New York Mets in the ninth inning of Game 4 in the 1988 National League championship series, Ellen turned to Richie and said, “I was just praying to [Florence], and she told me he was going to hit a home run.”

Scioscia hit one on the next pitch, sending the game into extra innings. The Dodgers won on Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 12th, eliminated the Mets in seven games and beat the Oakland Athletics in the World Series.

Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com.