Notes on a Scorecard - Jan. 14, 1992

A week without not-so-instant replay reviews. A week without late hits. A week without prevent defenses. A week without mugging for the camera. Maybe this is the best week of the NFL season. . . .

What do Jim Everett, Chuck Long, Jack Trudeau and Hugh Millen have in common? They are quarterbacks who were drafted ahead of Mark Rypien in 1986. . . .

Rypien has the most robust thigh slap in sports since Tug McGraw. . . .

The networks should introduce the starting lineups of both teams or neither. Before the conference championships Sunday, NBC and CBS gave us only the home teams. . . .

The Washington Redskins have sacked quarterbacks 50 times and been sacked only nine times this season, including playoff games. . . .

Three of the four NFL coaches who worked over the weekend have Pacific 10 Conference backgrounds. Joe Gibbs and Wayne Fontes were assistants at USC and Marv Levy was head coach at California. . . .

I can’t remember hearing more positive comments about a Pac-10 basketball game than those after UCLA’s last-second victory at Arizona Saturday. . . .

“For a moment there, I thought the ghosts of McKale Center were coming out again,” Bruin Coach Jim Harrick said. “But we won out and we deserved to win. We’re older, smarter and wiser than last season. We learned a lot from adversity. I’m talking about the kids and the coach, too. Going out in the first round of the NCAA tournament was a little like that commercial, ‘We needed that.’ ” . . .

Harrick compares the UCLA-Arizona rivalry to Duke-North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference and Georgetown-Syracuse in the Big East. . . .

“The amount of mutual respect between our players and coaches is unsurpassed,” Harrick said. “Most of the kids played against each other in high school and Lute (Olson) and I are good friends. The competition on the court is unbelievable, and then we congratulate each other in the locker room.” . . .

Among those most responsible for ending Arizona’s home winning streak at 71 games was guard Gerald Madkins. Sidelined since Dec. 14 because of a broken bone in his left hand, Madkins did a terrific job defending against Chris Mills in the last five minutes of the first half and the last 15 minutes of the game. . . .

Notre Dame’s destruction of North Carolina at Madison Square Garden flattered USC. . . .

The trouble with the successful comeback of George Foreman, 43, is that it has given too many other old champions the same idea. . . .

Larry Holmes, 42; Leon Spinks, 38; Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini, 30, and Danny (Little Red) Lopez, 39, are in training. . . .

The difference between their attempted comebacks and that of Mark Spitz is that Spitz didn’t risk scrambling his brains when he returned to the pool. . . .

Perhaps the only fighter ever to retire too early was unbeaten heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano. He could have made a mint defending his title against Floyd Patterson, whom he probably would have beaten. . . .

Thumbs up to former middleweight champion Marvin Hagler, who hasn’t yet succumbed to lucrative offers. . . .

Look-alikes: Rick Pitino and Fred Roggin. . . .

Magic Johnson is planning to play in the NBA All-Star game Feb. 9 at Orlando, Fla. . . .

Charles Barkley has been traded more in the papers than AT&T.; . . .

Former Clipper publicist Bill Kreifeldt has taken a similar position with the Utah Pioneers of the Professional Spring Football League, which will begin its first season Feb. 29. . . .

San Jose State is the only NCAA Division I football team in Northern California with a coach, now that Walt Harris has left the University of Pacific to become quarterback coach of the New York Jets. . . .

I liked it a lot better when there were fewer postseason college all-star games and virtually every top NFL prospect played in the East-West Shrine game at old Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. . . .

Santa Anita is doing the wise thing by starting its thoroughbred racing card at 11 a.m. a week from Sunday so fans can get home in time for the Super Bowl. . . .

Evelyn Ashford, 34, has a good chance to become the first American sprinter to compete in four Olympic Games. . . .

It seems strange that a major tennis tournament, the Australian Open, is played so early in the year. Of course, the stock racing season opens every year with its biggest event, the Daytona 500. . . .

Cal Ripken Jr. showed the biggest increase in batting average between 1990 and 1991, jumping from .250 to .323. The player who had the biggest decrease? Billy Ripken, who dipped from .291 to .216.