SATELLITE SPORTS-DEBATING SOCIETY.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH / The Media

Charles Barkley showed up the other day on Fox Sports Net's ``The Last Word'' long enough to call co-host Wallace Matthews a ``red-neck,'' then shoot down co-host Jim Rome as ``the village idiot.''

Which is just the kind of publicity a two-month old cable sports show dreams about. Even better, since Rome wasn't sent retreating to the fetal position.

Fortunately for all concerned, Barkley failed to get in the last word on that ``Last Word.'' Nor will his views be the last thing said or written about what should evolve into the sports-TV equivalent to a ``60 Minutes'' point-counterpoint.

Whatever shaky ground they might have been on at the start, Matthews, the New York Post columnist, and Rome, the in-your-face, nationally syndicated, sports-talk radio host based in L.A., have found their bearing in the last few weeks. As daily issues come up that beckon for both quiet reflection and strong opinion, they will continue to build on a foundation that can only benefit the viewer.

``It was really difficult to get a feel for each other early on because we were just two guys going up on a satellite and told to talk,'' Rome said from third-floor offices of Fox Sports Net news producer John Torenzio on the 20th Century Fox studios lot in Century City following a Wednesday taping.

``All we have to do now is find a hot issue and we can run with it. There's nothing contrived. We've found out we're different enough as people to maybe agree on some points but disagree on others and talk it out.''

``It can be hard because on a lot of things we think alike,'' said Matthews on the phone from New York. ``I've found out that he's more tolerant of athletes' behavior as long as they're winners or give a great performance on the court. I will always revert toward whether the athlete can play the game of life and act as role models.''

Rome had Matthews on as a guest on his radio show several times at major boxing events before Torenzio, the show's L.A.-side coordinator, and Brian Walls, who runs the crux of the operation in New York, decided to put them together for a daily TV Lincoln-Douglas forum.

Wednesday's topic was a perfect example of how far they've come on their debate tactics. Both seemed genuinely steamed about the incident at Villanova on Tuesday night when injured UConn star Nykesha Sales was allowed to score two points at the beginning of the Huskies' game so she could set the school's all-time women's scoring record.

When the two were on a conference call an hour before Wednesday's taping, they struggled trying to come up with opposite positions to take for the show's first segment. With Torenzio, Walls and Fox Sports Net executive producer Arthur Smith trying to help them focus on the topic's intricacies, Rome and Matthews were able to turn the incident into a launching point for a discussion about where women's sports could be going. Mix in two segments with interviews with U.S. women's hockey star Cammi Granato and Philadelphia Phillies manager Terry Francona and top it off with a parting shot, and a show is made by 6 p.m. EST, ready to put in place at midnight after the Fox Sports Net final newscast for each region of the country, repeated at 6 p.m. the next day.

``I've seen them argue for 15 minutes on a subject before the show and then decide they don't have anything to argue about,'' said John Nelson, the former Associated Press sportswriter hired recently to add substance to the stylized Fox Sports Net shows. ``I had to say, `Hey, guys, you just did the argument.' They're learning.''

Neither Rome nor Matthews knew what they'd say on the Sales story once the cameras were turned on. But they didn't leave their game in the green room.

An example was when Rome asked Matthews to name two players on the WNBA's New York Liberty.

``There's Rebecca Lobo,'' said Matthews. ``And there's . . . Rebecca Lobo.''

Matthews, at a loss for words?

It was a case in which Rome got the last word, maybe by default, but definitely not by design.

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

If you haven't heard by now, AM 1150 SPORTS RADIO L.A. HAS THE DODGERS (there's a side of a 15-story hotel on Sunset Blvd. across the street from the House of Blues and the Sunset Strip Tattoo Parlor as a small reminder). AND THE FIRST GAME IS TODAY AT 9:30 A.M., WHEN THE DODGERS PLAY HOUSTON IN THE EXHIBITION SEASON OPENER, WITH THE FIRST PITCH AT 10:05 A.M. (Why don't newspapers have a volume control?)

AM 1150 says it will replay every Dodgers game in its entirety at midnight once the regular season starts. Which means more Vin Scully and less overnight syndicated sports-talk mush.

Jeff Biggs' up-to-the-second dispatches from the Lakers' road trip for AM 1150. Cover a team right and it pays off.

WHAT CHOKES

Sports Illustrated's politically correct cover story on Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt, using her name in the same headline as John Wooden. Especially the day after the women's game was tarnished when UConn's Nykesha Sales was given a charity basket to break a school scoring record.

Every year about this time, Fred Roggin does his ``Are the magazine swimsuit issues really sexist?'' story on his Channel 4 Sunday night wrap-up show. And every year, the conclusion is the same: Hey, we don't know, but here are the pictures from Sports Illustrated

Whaddaya think!? Wink, wink!

We kinda think you've shown the thong and short of it long enough.

Tape-delayed Lakers road games on Channel 9. (Doesn't this sound like a broken record by now?)

CNN/SI big-haired sportscaster Laura Okmin. Every weeknight at 8 you half-expect partner Bob Lorenz to reach over and pull a pterodactyl egg out of that 'do.

By Tom Hoffarth

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BOX: SOUND BYTES (see text)