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I'm still at the day job, but I'll do my best to provide the standard PBP in the comments below

The big test for the weekend and the highlight of the regional is obviously the potential Saturday matchup between LSU and Oregon St. To get a preview of the Beavers, I talked to our SB Nation Blog Bro Andy at Building The Dam (where they have an excellent review of their season to this point)

PodKATT: Looking over the OSU schedule, the Beavers have a good record in the PAC, including sweeps of Oregon and Cal and series wins over UCLA and Stanford, but the only notable OOC result is a single home win over Oklahoma. How prepared do you think this team is for it's first trip (barely) east of the Mississippi?

Andy @ Building The Dam: Oregon St. spent 3 of the first 4 weeks on the road in southern California and Arizona, and also made a week long trip to Tempe and Reno, but you are right, most of their best baseball has come at home in Goss Stadium. They also have not played in a hot, humid environment all season

The Beavers are 9-5 against teams hosting regionals, so they can play at a high level, but one of the keys to this weekend is whether they can play to their capabilities when faced with a large, hostile crowd, in an environment that is hostile to them in more ways than one.

The telling stat I think is that Oregon St. is 12-2 on Sundays, and have won 5 of 7 series deciding games this year. The team does not throw in the towel when something goes wrong, and has tended to finish strong, traits that tend to serve teams well in the post season.

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Yet another team that's changed it's mascot and logo significantly in my lifetime. ULM was put in a tough spot when the NCAA mandate about nicknames like Indians was put into place, but every time I end up scrolling through their media guides they seem to do a better job of modifying and embracing the Warhawks nickname. I mean, that video is freakin' awesome.

UL- Monroe (31-28, 15-15 in the Sun Belt) comes into Baton Rouge as a lowly 4 seed, here only thanks to a remarkable run in the Sun Belt tournament, including 2 extra inning wins, one of which was a walk off 13 inning shocker against Sun Belt leader FAU. ULM finished the season a full 5 1/2 games back of FAU, but came through when it matter in the post season, securing both the league's auto-bid and the NCAA required over .500 record in the same weekend. The Warhawks do have a road series win from early in the year at Tennessee to hang their hats on, as well as a season sweep of Tulane, but losses to TCU, Baylor, McNeese, Northwestern St., and a series loss to Nicholls St, combine with their .500 Sun Belt record to make a less than flattering resume to say the least. (ULM missed out on playing LSU this year, but today's game will make La Tech the only D-1 program in the state to miss the Tigers this season.)

Much has been made over the last few days about Randy Zeigler, ULM's starting pitcher this afternoon. Zeigler's college career started at LSU in the '09 championship season. After a few very brief outings, Zeigler was set to have a start against Grambling in early April, when he felt a pop in his arm during warmups. Zeigler needed Tommy John surgery, after which Zeigler and Mainieri had a disagreement about his future role on the team. Zeigler hit the road for Bossier Parish CC, then back to D1 at ULM, where he's become the ace of their staff and one of the leading pitchers in the Sun Belt. Zeigler (ERA 3.65, 5-6 106IP, BB/K 55/108, 3 CG, BA against .235) leads a ULM staff that has a collective ERA of 4.28, with no regular with an ERA under 3.18. Their best relief is Will Browning (ERA 3.36, 56.1 IP/29 App, 6 saves, BB/K 18/53). The Warhawks attack at the plate will be led by Sun Belt Player of the Year SS Jeremy Sy (BA .329, SLG .500, OBP .432, 35RBI 4HR) and Joey Rapp (BA .325, SLG .534, OBP .422, 51RBI, 9HR) while the team has an overall BA of .272 with 33 homers on the year.

On paper, ULM fits the mold of the plucky, "just happy to be here" 4 seed that's only here to fill out the bracket, but ULM's familiarity with LSU, their traveling fans, and the added element of Zeigler attempting to prove LSU wrong could make for a tough out

UL-Monroe Stats Page

Try as I might, old Belmont logos are hard to come by, mostly because they used to be the Belmont Rebels until a change in the '80s. Their current bruin is kinda gnarly lookin' though.

The #3 seed of the Baton Rouge bracket are the Belmont Bruins, winners of the Atlantic Sun conference tournament and the only NCAA team from that league. The ASUN's regular contribution to baseball comes from the Stetson Hatters, but Belmont took control of the league early with a series win over the Hatters and would go on to win the league's regular season crown by a half game. Other notable Belmont wins include splitting a cross town series with Vandy and taking 1 of 3 at Auburn. (As is customary ATVS tradition, I must inform you that Belmont did drop a weekend series to conference mate North Florida, who are coached by Smoke Laval) Otherwise, Belmont has a few random Sun Belt wins, but the resume isn't impressive. Belmont had a good year going 39-22, 17-10 in conference, but the fact is they are only in the tournament thanks to the auto-bid.

The Bruins will be going with their workhorse on Friday afternoon in Chase Brookshire (ERA 2.45, 8-3 103IP, BB/K 24/78, 1 CG, 7HR, .222 BA against) and have a few bullpen standouts (Austin Coley ERA 2.42, 44.2 IP/ 25 App; Josh Davis ERA 2.50, 50.1 IP/ 23 App) along with some strong looking closers (Scott Moses ERA 0.94, 38 IP/ 27 App, 3 saves, BB/K 9/37; Garrett Fanchier ERA 4.11, 30.2 IP/ 30 App, 11 saves, BB/K 9/20). At the plate, Belmont has 3 regulars hitting over .300, led by Zac Mitchell (BA .361, SLG .542, OBP .493, 36RBI, 5HR, 20-23 SB) and the team BA is .266, with a combined 32 HR and 290 RBI. Something to keep an eye out for is Belmont being feisty on the basepaths, having already stolen 86 bases on 116 attempts this year.

Belmont may not be as awestruck as your typical mid major in Alex Box, as the Bruins used to play in a 10,000+ seat minor league park in Nashville up until 2 years ago, but I doubt they've seen crowds like they will experience this weekend. Belmont may hang with Oregon St for a bit, and could give ULM some serious trouble, but with just a 1-2 record against the Top 50 RPI, this weekend will be a level of competition that the Bruins may not be ready for..

Belmont Stats Page

As you are well aware by now, LSU is back where it belongs in college baseball, hosting Belmont, ULM, and Oregon St as a national seed this weekend. LSU has opted to let Belmont and Oregon St roast in the 2pm sun on Friday while taking the night opener against ULM at 7pm. The games will all be on Cox Sports and CSS as ESPN has decided to take their coverage elsewhere. I'm not sure what the internet streaming situation will be yet, but at the very least NCAA rules would make it a free weekend on the Geaux Zone if it's not picked up by ESPN3. Our Better Know A Regional series kicks off later today.

Reaction to this year's field has been mostly positive, but there are a few head scratchers. The lack of SLU making the tournament is disappointing, but Texas getting the hook and Kentucky losing out on a hosting spot is not. I'll have more of an overall preview of the NCAA regional round on Friday, but the most interesting matchup so far is Miss St. facing UAB and their volunteer Asst. coach Ron Polk.

Elsewhere in the SEC, Auburn fans are taking a very hard look at going through another coaching change.

Time for some baseball awards. Raph Rhymes was named the SEC Player of the Year, with Kevin Gausman, Mason Katz, Aaron Nola, and Ryan Eades making various all-conference teams. Kevin Gausman and Raph Rhymes have both been named semifinalists for the Golden Spikes award(best amateur baseball player)

Speaking of Cox Sports, the network has decided not to retain it's status as the local TV home for the New Orleans Hornets, which should free the network up to air more LSU games live, particularly baseball.

Lost in my rage over Martin and Alleva trying to duck out of the annual Florida game was a little tidbit where Alleva states that the LSU/A&M game could move to thanksgiving week after a few years. I kinda like the idea (my own preference that LSU/A&M be a late September game aside) and if it gets our Thanksgiving week game off of the Friday and gives us back a full week I'm all for it, but this is just Alleva speculating at this point.

We should know all about the future of football at the end of the week, as the SEC plans to announce the next 12 years of the conference schedule, a unified playoff recommendation, and even a new proposal for the currently shelved stipend system that the SEC brought to the NCAA last year. It's going to be a huge week, but at least Les is still being Les. The SEC had our old friend Dave Baker interview a wide range of coaches and administrators including Les Miles. Meanwhile, Mizzou AD Alden is just happy to be here.

The first of the CFB awards watch lists are out, with P.J. Lonergan on the Rimington (best center) and Sam Montgomery and Eric Reid on the Lott (best defensive player)

With his "interim" tag firmly attached, there may only ever be one game between Ark HC John L. Smith and Les Miles, and that's something the world should be looking forward to.

The games was like a lot of LSU losses this year. Get up early on a team and then try to coast to the finish on too few runs. Something after jumping on first time starter Lindgren immediately, the offense just seemed to get complacent and settle for some bad swings. It got worse at the end where a few batters just stood there not swinging and taking a K. A single run would have kept this game out of extra innings.

Of course, stopping State from getting 3 runs in the last 2 frames would have prevented the extra innings as well. Starter Eades had his best outing for a couple of weeks. While it wasn't spectacular, it was steady, and when ever he'd get into trouble, the defense was always their to bail him out. It's such an odd contrast to see in these games, where their is a strong intensity on defense, but then to turn around and sleepwalk through the at-bats. Cotton was alright in the relief, though some will question using him two days in a row as opposed to some of the other relief that had pitched successfully against State on Wednesday and was better rested. The elephant in the room here is Nick Goody, who has looked shaky on the mound since the Vandy blown save and is teetering on becoming a liability. He seemed to labor at the mound as soon as he got behind in the count. Credit should go to the Bulldogs who never gave up and seemed to feed off the emotion as their team came back. I've seen some people pissed about the post game dogpile, but I wasn't remotely offended by it. They swept a rival, a team that beat them in a weekend series, and the tournament's #1 seed out of Hoover and that's plenty reason to be happy. I'm here for the rest of the weekend and I'll probably be cheering for them as the lesser of two evils. I'll be damned if an SEC East team is going to win this thing again.

(You want something to be mad about? How about Cohen stopping play to discuss Rhubarb pie recipes with home plate up Tony Maners for 5-10 minutes in the middle of a freakin' at-bat. Mainieri was right to be pissed as it threw off what little rhythm Goody had been developing. We'll never know what the excuse was, but Mainieri's got a decent complaint to bring up with the league if he chooses to.)

It was disappointing, to be sure, but then no LSU coach will ever be immortalized for winning in Hoover. We've got some extra days to prepare for regional and likely super regional hosting. Time enough to make sure the team knows a 3 run lead isn't going to cut it in the post season and to find out what's wrong with Goody. Despite the problems, this team has the talent to get to Omaha. It's making sure that talent is applied that will be the key.

LINKS OF INTEREST

NCAA and Major League Baseball relationship could increase baseball scholarships - AL.com

In which Mainieri shares the same distrust of the MLB's proposed "partnership" as I do

State defeats LSU 4-3 in extras; magical run continues to Saturday - ForWhomTheCowbellTolls

Our SBN Blog Bros recap of the game

SEC Baseball Tournament 2012: Final Four as Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt Fight It Out - TeamSpeedKills

Preview of today's games

Softball Gears Up for NCAA Columbia Super Regional - LSUSports.net

Preview of this weekend's softball super regional, all 3 games are live on ESPNU and ESPN3.com starting at 6pm tonight.

Yesterday's 11-2 clobbering of Ole Miss was exactly the kind of turn around you hope to see from a team facing elimination. We knew going in that Ole Miss' pitching was going to be a weakness to exploit and the Tigers were able to find the exact point at which the Rebels bullpen ends and exploit it terrifically for a 5 run 8th. Ignoring the gawdy numbers from the most lopsided game in the SEC Tournament so far, there are a few key things from the game to pay attention to going forward this week. Ty Ross playing catcher so soon after his appendectomy had we worried, but he was fine behind the plate (miracle of modern medicine). He was not tested with a pickoff throw, though, so we'll have to wait to see if that rifle arm is back or not. Snickeris's late insertion at DH was fantastic and he is clearly ready to go. I don't care how bad the Rebels relief was, he wasn't throwing LSU BP and hitting a home run at Hoover is a huge feat. This team is starting to look offensively like it did before the Vandy series and that is a great sign for the remainder of the post season. There is a knee jerk panic reaction you have to Gausman getting pulled for the bullpen after 8, but remember that the SECT is a marathon, not a sprint. If you want Gausman back for Sunday, it's best to pull him as soon as the game got out of hand. McCune and Cotton did fine and really didn't pitch much at all. I think things are setup well for this weekend.

SEC Baseball Tournament 2012: LSU, South Carolina Bounce Back to Face Mississippi State, Florida - TeamSpeedKills

TO get to the weekend, we have to get past State again. The best news is that they won't be starting Stratton. The Bulldogs will instead be going with FR Jacob Lindgren (2.75 ERA, 19.2 IP in 12 app, 18H, 18K, 4BB) followed by an ensemble cast. I'm not sure how many arms are left for State, including their closing arms in Reed and Holder who have both been used twice already in the tournament. LSU will go with Eades, followed by the bullpen cast as well, but they are much more rested. I think the key is going to be getting to State's bullpen before they get to our's. If Eades can have a good outing (he went 7IP with 8H but only 1 run v State back in March) that sets LSU up great for a win today, and a much better pitching situation tomorrow against Kentucky (if we make it)

The SEC tourney is on the CSS stations today and tomorrow, which means Cox Sports in Louisiana and NO BLACKOUTS (HUZZAH!) on ESPN3. The SEC is still providing a free audio feed of the game HERE.

One link to share today, an excellent preview of the LSU-Mizzou Super Regional this weekend from our SB Nation Blog Bros at Rock M Nation.

After the break, the post game press conference from yesterday and the highlights from yesterday's game

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It's win or go home from here on out for LSU, but you could hardly ask for a better pitching situation in an elimination game. LSU is sending uber-starter Kevin Gausman while Ole Miss is starting....a player to be named later. The Rebs have already thrown their best starters in Wahl and Mayers earlier this week, and according to OM HC Bianco's comments their other semi-regular starter RJ Hively may be too sore to start. I'll share in the comments who it is as soon as I find out. This bodes well for LSU, as the last time Ole Miss started TBA v LSU it was a 12-3 massacre. It's going to be a long grind to Sunday now that LSU has lost, so pitcher conservation is key. Gausman has to last long, maybe even go complete again.

The game is again on Fox Sports, so ESPN3 blackouts do apply. The SEC's neutral radio broadcast is still available for free on their site.

Now that I'm settled in in Hoover, I'm going to try and do the Gamethread updates, but coverage in the stadium is spotty, so I'm still looking for volunteers. Big thanks to WatsonTiger for his work yesterday.

LINKS OF INTEREST

SEC Baseball Tournament 2012: South Carolina, LSU Lose Openers as Arkansas, Georgia Eliminated - TeamSpeedKills

The other team with an opening round bye didn't fare well either

From The Archives: Rosenblatt, 1964-1980 - Omaha World Herald

An amazing collection of pictures from the early days of Rosenblatt

The 75 Most Average SEC Players in (Recent) History - EDSBS.com

Billy put together an amazing list of not so amazing players from the SEC's past, it almost assuredly will make you go "Oh Yeah, I remember that guy"

New Orleans Paper Said to Face Deep Cuts and May Cut Back on Publication - New York Times

Pour one out for your homies at the TimesPic

LSU comes off the Bye with a big opening test against Mississippi St. They will be throwing their ace Chris Stratton, who's got the best ERA in the conference at 2.16 and is second only to Gausman with 115 strikeouts. Against him, LSU will be starting Aaron Nola in a brief outing, followed by the full bullpen cast. Gausman might have started if the Thursday S Car game hadn't been rained out and moved, but there was no chance Mainieri was going to let him pitch on short rest after a complete game. Last time, Nola allowed 5 runs in the 1st to Miss St., but he's no longer a wide eyed freshman and should do fine. I would be worried about MSU's big 1B Wes Rea who was able to blast a 3 run HR out of the barn that is Hoover Municipal off of ARK's starter yesterday.

The game will start 30 minutes after the Elimination Game between Ole Miss and Arkansas (estimated 12:30 start) and will air on Fox Sports, which means local blackout rules will apply to the ESPN3 service. Free audio of the SEC Network's broadcast is available here.

SEC Tournament Day One Recap and Day Two Preview from Team Speed Kills

OTHER LINKS OF INTEREST

LSU baseball Coach Paul Mainieri reveals Raph Rhymes unselfish gesture - Times Picayune

Rhymes VOLUNTARILY gave up his scholarship after last season to help improve the team. Amazing.

Bertman Skipped No Steps in Building LSU Dynasty - SECSports.com

On Skip's 74th birthday, the league office looks back at his amazing accomplishments in bringing SEC baseball out of the Stone Age.

Learning from the LSU example - SEBaseball.com

Just increasing the tourney field to 10 teams isn't going to be enough to get more teams into the NCAA. They have to actually be good.

Alabama, Auburn baseball endure droughts during SEC golden age - AL.com

SEC baseball has never been better. So why are two formerly top line programs in the dark ages? (Hint: because they are cheap)

HOW THE BIG EAST DIED AND WAS DEAD ALL ALONG - EDSBS.com

A perfect explanation of why college football has never, and will never work in the Northeast, and why Big East football was dead before it began.

Apologies for the brevity this morning, but I have a good reason

Hit It Jerry...

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Go ahead, raise your hand if you had "outright SEC regular season Championship" as the outcome for this team at the beginning of the year. Mason Katz was awarded the SEC Player of the Week for his stellar weekend at South Carolina that included what would be the game and series winning RBI, but let's not diminish the stellar job Jackson Slaid did in breaking the tie in the 10th. Slaid had to be pulled from the bullpen to pinch hit as he had been warming up Nick Goody due to our lack of healthy catchers.

With the #1 seed and the bye, LSU will play Wednesday at around 12:30-1pm against either Ar-kansas, Ole Miss, Miss St., or Kentucky depending on the outcome of Tuesday's games. The tournament remains double elimination, but with 10 teams it has gotten a bit complicated. LSU has never lost an SEC tournament it has participated in in the Mainieri Era and would only need 4 wins to take the title. All the teams are in Hoover today for batting practice and traditionally the SEC has a preview show live from the park sometime in the afternoon where various players, coaches, and media pundits take a turn on the stage. I'll share a link here when it's available. Tuesday through Thursday there will be 4 games a day broken into 2 sessions, the morning games being televised in Louisiana on Fox Sports and the afternoon games on Cox Sports. The entirety of the tournament will also be on ESPN3.com, but you will potentially face local blackout restrictions depending on your cable service.

With LSU's Top 8 National Seed locked up, SEBaseball.com has a great rundown of all the other tournament action around the country worth following, including the outlooks for the rest of the SEC, Tulane, Southeastern, and others.

There was other diamond action of importance in College Station over the weekend as the Lady Tigers used the power of the RALLY CONE to break a pitcher's duel shutout with Texas St on Friday, then wiped out regional host and Top 8 national seed Texas A&M to advance to the women's super regional round for the first time since 2007. In an odd coincidence, the Tigers will head to future SEC foe Mizzou for their super regional round next weekend.

(Side Note: If you've ever wondered what LSU Baseball uniforms would look like if Nike was given free reign, take a look at the softball team. I'm not a fan of all of it, but things like the faint Tiger Stripe pattern on the batting helmets might work for the baseball team)

Another season in the books, and yet more whining and complaining from the B1G about how amazingly unfair college baseball is to schools up north. There's nothing new in the article that we didn't hear earlier this season (the only thing of note is that the B1G confirmed they will bring up their ridiculous fall baseball plan with the NCAA officially this summer) but what's interesting is what isn't in the article. Lots of wailing from coaches and admins who are unsuccessful is in there, but not a peep from Purdue or it's coach, a program that is VERY successful this year and has made a significant commitment to improving their program, a commitment that incidentally is causing Purdue issues when it comes to hosting. I would like nothing more than for Purdue to reach Omaha this year and prove that yes, it can be done if you have snow on the ground until March. Then we won't have to hear these damaging ideas from a conference that has money to throw around but as much significance in the sport as the MAC does.

One last note on the B1G and college baseball, Jim Delaney has found a way to guarantee an All B1G field at TD Ameritrade in Omaha in 2014: He moved the conference tournament there.

LSU graduated a full slate of seniors from almost every sport on Friday. The big "returned to graduate" name this semester was Demetrius Byrd, who you still cannot see.

The interview I posted last week of new men's basketball coach Johnny Jones was actually just a sample of a 20 minute interview he gave to WAFB, which you can watch here.

LOLO premiers tonight at 6pm on ESPNU.

UNO is taking the steps to rejoin D1 and has hired a new AD, LSU Alum Derek Morel.

Tulane is suing the city of New Orleans 1to block the recent zoning decisions that will hinder it's plans for a new on-campus stadium.

Strange and important things are happening in the world of college football after the SEC and BXII announced their bowl partnership last week (a game that even without the conference champions would have produced some great matchups over the past years). It may be the next step in the line of dominoes that sets off the Superconference movement. It might cause FSU to join the Big XII. It might NOT cause FSU to join the BXII. It might cause the basketball conferences of the ACC and Big East to be left out of the playoff system. There's a strong likelihood that all of that will prove inaccurate over the next 24 hours or the next week.

What I do know is this: It's damned entertaining to watch all of these teams and conferences flail around grasping for money and relevancy while LSU is comfortably ensconced as a power team in the power conference. Let the rest of the college football world tear itself to pieces trying to secure a spot at the table for whatever the future holds. LSU is already there.

UPDATE: Thursday Rain Out, Details after the break.

One of the oddities of SEC baseball is that it plays a 10 weekend league schedule with 12 teams, meaning you miss one team a year. By odd coincidence, this has led to LSU and South Carolina missing each other for the last 2 years as the Gamecocks have made their mark as a dominant program in college baseball and the class of the SEC. That all gets settled this weekend as the winners of the last 3 National Championships square off with a shot at the SEC regular season championship, the #1 overall seed in next week's tournament, and a potential national Top 8 seed all up for grabs to the winner. I talked with Gamecock Man of the excellent Garnet and Black Attack to get his thoughts on his team and the weekend ahead.

PodKATT: Thanks to the scheduling quirks of the SEC, It's been a while since LSU has played South Carolina and the program has taken off for the stratosphere after 2 straight national titles. What's the culture of the fan base like these days and how prominent would you say the team is in the minds of the average South Carolina fan?

Gamecock Man: Football is king at South Carolina, but we're one of the few schools where baseball probably comes in second (although prolonged futility by the basketball team has a lot to do with that). South Carolina fans love their baseball. That's been true for a while now, and it's become even more true over the past two years, as, after many years of being competitive but not great, we can now lay claim to being an elite program. South Carolina hasn't had much to crow about over the course of its history, so we take a lot of pride in having a great baseball program. That will show this weekend, when you can expect to see a big crowd on hand for what has ended up being one of the premier SEC series of the year.

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A team that bats with swords, clearly UNAMERICAN!

We come to the end of another baseball season, the wagons pointed straight home for the postseason, with ground still yet to cover in the final weekend series and the conference tournament in Hoover. But there is one more home match left and it is against our old adversary, the Nicholls St. Kolonels. It's been a banner year for the Commies* (25-25, 12-17 in the Southland), that started off with an opening day win at Southern Miss and non-conference series wins v. ULM and Southeastern on back-to-back weekends. With only 2 conference series wins this season, however, their season may end this weekend as they'll need to sweep S.F. Austin to even reach their post season tournament. Offensively, their numbers aren't that far below LSU's, batting .278 as a team, and they have the reigning LSWA Offensive player of the week in Jeremy Hill (383/509/453 64H 72B 4HR 39RBI). The Commies also love to steal, taking 98 bases out of 113 attempts, something that could be a problem with our current catching situation. Nicholls is starting it's 2nd best starter in Wisecarver tonight, but it looks like he mainly does midweek games. While I'm sure both squads want to win this game, it'll be interesting to see the pitching strategies as both teams have big weekends ahead.

Speaking of pitching strategies, Kurt McCune is getting his first start in more than a month as Eades' continued dip in effectiveness has raised up the alarm that we need another arm for the post season. A good outing tonight could see him get a start in Hoover if needed. Ideally, you want to just win and get home quickly tonight, but consider this: Nicholls has one win against LSU in the last 12 meetings, that win was in 2009, right before LSU started on the path to a National Championship.

Video via the GeauxZone service only, weak chance of a thunderstorm tonight, so we should be fine.

PITCHING MATCHUP via LSUSports.net
LSU - So. RHP Kurt McCune (2-4, 4.21 ERA, 36.1 IP, 13 BB, 22 SO)
NSU - Sr. LHP Mike Wisecarver (1-6, 4.61 ERA, 68.1 IP, 14 BB, 29 SO)

*The whole Nicholls = Communism gag has been running as long as I've been in charge around here, but I have been assured that actual Americans do in fact attend and have graduated from the institution. I've yet to actually meet one, but people I trust say they do exist.

The above was the most entertaining thing to happen at Alex Box over the weekend as the Tigers got sideswiped by a Vandy team that has now become red hot at exactly the right time. It also didn't help that nearly everything that could go wrong did. Lackluster performances from Nola the Younger and Eades, the rare blown save by Goody, Rhymes going 2 for 12 on the weekend and dropping his BA down to .478, and the sudden loss of Ross behind home plate due to appendicitis all contributed to the series loss, the latter of which allowing Vandy to steal with significant success (9 stolen bases combined Saturday and Sunday) and turning what had been a strength into a potential weakness until Snickeris gets up to speed. Ross is recovering well from the surgery, but won't be back until the final rounds of the SEC tournament at the earliest. The weekend wasn't a total loss though, as Gausman's complete game on Friday earned him SEC Pitcher of the Week.

The standings in the SEC are a bit of a mess with a pair of canceled Sunday games that cannot be made up, but LSU is still in terrific shape. We have locked up the SEC West #1 seed for the tournament and it's 1st and 2nd round byes by way of tiebreaker and can do no worse than finish tied for the division title. The overall SEC regular season championship is now a 4 way race between LSU and UK, SCar, and UF out of the east. After Nicholls St tonight, LSU hits the road for a Thurs-Fri-Sat series at SCar.

After being granted his release last week to look around at other schools, Ralston Turner will be transferring to NC State. The Alabama native will, after sitting out a year, be playing for Mark Gottfried, who originally recruited him when he was with the Crimson TIde. After the break, we've got an interview that Johnny Jones did for WAFB.

Les Miles was on Tim Brando's radio show last week, backing up Nick Saban's opinion that a conference championship should not be required for a team to be included in whatever playoff format emerges.

LSU was ranked #1 in the post-spring pre-season early-summer BlogPoll.

In NFL news, Harry Coleman got picked up as an UDFA by Edmonton of the CFL, Will Blackwell had to move up his wedding due to rookie minicamp at Carolina, and Chad Jones has been cut by the Giants after failing a physical, a significant setback after all the work he and the Giants have put in to get him back to playing shape.

Arkansas is having one helluva off season.

SEC public enemy #1 Harvey Updyke had to be escorted away from the SEC Softball tournament last weekend (LSU is headed to the NCAAs at College Station this weekend)

You know you love'em, here's the SEC football helmet schedule.

All of a sudden there is a ton of talk about Florida State potentially moving to the BXII, and not everyone at FSU is on the same page. Our SBN Blog Bros at Tomahawk Nation have excellent coverage of this madness. Also in realignment news, Boise St might be getting cold feet and Louisville just flat wants out of the Big East.

The USFL is coming back as a spring football league.

Northwestern State's baseball game with La Tech last Wednesday was canceled BECAUSE THE FIELD WAS ON FIRE.

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The end of the season looked much tougher at the begining of the year, with LSU having to face 2 Omaha teams in back to back weeks. But then Vanderbilt's (24-24, 11-13 in SEC) bad start turned into a bad season and suddenly everyone's looking ahead to a SEC Regular Season Championship series at South Carolina next weekend. Overlooking the Dores would be a big mistake, however. I talked with Christian D'Andrea of the excellent Vandy blog Anchor of Gold to get a preview of the team.

PodKATT: Vandy lost the most of anyone in the SEC from last year's teams (11 players to the draft, 15 total), but I don't think anyone foresaw the nosedive at the start of the season coming from a squad that had just been to Omaha. The competition Vandy faced was tough (both Stanford and Oregon could be national seeds) but what caused the bad start?

Christian D'Andrea: The easiest piece to point to is that attrition. Vanderbilt lost their entire weekend starting staff and the heart of their lineup this summer, and that only made up 40% of their overall losses from that Omaha roster. While stalwarts like Tony Kemp and Anthony Gomez remained, there were too many question marks surrounding this team as the season started. Valued recruits like Chris Harvey and Vince Conde stepped up to fill that void, but it was a case of too much, too soon for some of these players.

There's a lot of talent in the cupboard for Tim Corbin, but that inexperience - coupled with a tough, tough out-of-conference schedule - really set this team back early in the season. You can see the mental lapses in those first few weeks - things like errors, baserunning mistakes, blown assignments. At that point in the season Vandy was more of a collection of talent and less of a team. That's something that has been improving as the season has worn on, especially at the plate, but problems persist.

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Miles was in Birmingham to speak to a church group and his comments at the tail end of that speech above have generated some buzz as he came out in favor of Steve Spurrier's "division record" plan to determine SEC Champ Game participants. He also shared what may be the first official bit of trash talk for both of the new SEC teams

As for Texas A&M and Missouri joining the SEC: "I would say strap it up," Miles said. "They're going to really not enjoy their welcoming to this conference."

Jordan Jefferson, after a week at Tampa Bay's rookie minicamp, has been signed to a contract. Meanwhile, he's also being sued by 4 people for the Shady's incident. As far as i've been able to tell, the orignal misdemeanor charge case has yet to be settled, and I don't recall there being 4 "victims" when this was being investigated last fall.

Tiger Sports Digest caught up with QB coach Steve Kragthorpe to see how he's managed his first year dealing with Parkinson's disease.

Have you voted for Austin Nola today?

Raph Rhymes could be the first player in the NCAA in 21 years to end a season batting over .500, so of course our friends in Omaha are writing about it.

After a few years in the Dodgers minor league system, Blake Dean will be returning to LSU to join the team as an undergrad assistant coach while he finishes his degree.

After this weekend's series loss, Ole Miss fans are re-evaluating their expectations. Meanwhile, almost every regional projection out there has moved LSU into the National Top 8 seed column (SEBaseball.com, Perfect Game, ESPN) as the team moved up to the 3/4 spot in the National Rankings and moved up to #5 in the official NCAA RPI ratings, second best in the league behind only Florida. Also, JaCoby Jones was named the SEC Player of the Week and Mouton got a nice write up in the Daily Rev.

Over the weekend, things got a little heated in the Sunday game of the Bama-MSU series, with a controversial call at the end of the game leading to MSU coach Cohen getting a postgame ejection and one game suspension and an altercation between Bama's stadium security and the MSU assistant coaches.

ESPN is trying to figure out what to do to fix Bama baseball and the answers are 1: tear down the stadium and 2: move the team to Georgia.

SEC baseball has come back to some form of normal as South Carolina regains the top spot in the East after a rough start to the season.

Mizzou is already working to build a new fan base for baseball ahead of it's move to the SEC.

LSU has confirmed that Iowa St/Howard College transfer Calvin Godfrey has joined the team.

After earning his Doctorate last week, Shaq had and op-ed piece in USA Today on the importance of finishing high school and college.

College football may be getting a playoff, but it's not like that's going to stop the SEC's dominance.

Big East commish John Marinatto resigned (or was forced out) on Monday, leaving the conference with much instability and a lack of a new TV contract. Not everyone is sad to see him go.

After a few weeks of rumors,A&M AD Bill Byrne is on his way out.

Someone is trying to poach LSU's Chancellor, but he won't say who.

Life is tough for an LSU fan living outside of the state, especially if you're in Memphis.

Finally today, here's a crazy conspiracy theory that says Steve Bartman is responsible for LSU winning the 07 Championship and the overall dominance of SEC football.

After the break, we've got Mo Isom getting interviewed on ESPN,

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While both teams this weekend have likely secured postseason berths, both teams are looking to make their paths to Omaha a bit easier. LSU needs a big road win to help secure a national seed, while Ole Miss (30-16; 10-11 in SEC) wants to get into the regional hosting conversation. I spoke with our SBN Blog Bros at Red Cup Rebellion (who, aside from being Ole Miss fans, are pretty decent people) about the ReBears and their chances this weekend. I also answered a few questions they had about LSU, which you can read on their site.

PodKATT: In the one outing I've seen him, starter Bobby Wahl was less than impressive against UGA, but otherwise has a nice record and a stellar 2.09 ERA. How quickly did he adjust from his role last year in the bullpen and what other arms do the Tigers need to look out for?

The Cup: Bobby Wahl has been a really pleasant surprise for all of us. He was a highly touted recruit but, as a freshman, only saw action in set up or closing roles. After this past summer's Cape Cod League season, a lot of scouts told us that he was the real deal and would win games in the SEC as a starter. We were skeptical because we saw nothing to believe he'd be a reliable Friday night guy but we'll be damned if they weren't right. Wahl has impressed in most outings (as you mentioned, the Georgia game wasn't his best) by displaying great control and better-than-average velocity on almost all of his pitches.

Mike Mayers has become a reliable Saturday guy. On Sunday, Ole Miss trots out TBD (literally, our Sunday guy is "to be determined" leading into every weekend - it's frustrating). In relief, freshman Hawtin Buchanan has great velocity, while Aaron Greenwood and Dylan Chavez have settled into set up and closing roles pretty well over the past couple of weeks, so they're guys that you should see a lot of this weekend.

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Gov. Huey P Long leading his favorite campaign tool, the LSU Marching Band. Because it's been that kind of a week in Louisiana

Like a lot of sports websites, we like to keep politics as a non-issue here. But sometimes it juts into the world of sports whether we like it or not, and in Louisiana this more often than not proves to be entertaining.

Firstly, there is the matter of the sudden firing of LSU System President John Lombardi last week. Thanks to some fine reporting by The Chronicle of Higher Education, we learn that Gov. Jindal, in tandem with something called the LSU Flagship Coalition (which counts Ragin' Cajun James Carville among it's membership) has essentially seized control of the Board of Supervisors and is pushing for changes that the LSU faculty does not believe are in keeping with the ideals of making LSU a top tier research institution. Lombardi being a roadblock to those changes is essentially why he was suddenly fired (officially without cause, I might add, so he still gets to draw a hefty sum for his troubles) The matter is worth some discussion (and if yall don't keep it civil down there I'm going to turn this blog around right now) but as the BoS has essentially rubber stamped every contract and proposal the AD has brought before it for decades, it's not a big issue on the sports side of things.

More connected to LSU, and the Honorable Kingfish above, is the uncovering this week by Fox 8 New Orleans of a shady, old, oil land lease contract from the 1930's that has quietly netted the heirs of Huey Long and W.T. Burton hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. The LSU connection comes from W.T. Burton descendants, the Lawton family. You'll recognize that name from either Jack Lawton Jr., who currently serves on the LSU Board of Supervisors, or more likely from Jack's uncle, William "Bill" Lawton, who was the primary contributor on the Bill Lawton Squad Room addition to Tiger Stadium a few years ago. So, thanks for that, Kingfish.

And then there is the matter of Tulane in a modern day political mud fight of it's own. It's much applauded plans for a new on campus stadium (which, all Greenie hate aside, is a really great move for both Tulane and the New Orleans HS football scene) are now, at least temporarily, derailed by a bunch of whining uppercrust in the surrounding Uptown neighborhood who don't want the noise or parking inconvenience of a 30K seat, D1A football stadium in their backyard (side note: "Tulane Football: NOT IN MY BACKYARD!" gets funnier every time I type it). Never mind that a little thing called Mardi Gras does that already every spring. Essentially, yesterday the NOLA city council passed a motion that forces Tulane to not only pass all of their construction plans to the city in advance, but allows the city to potentially disapprove of those plans, putting the whole future of the project at risk. Both Mayor Landrieu and Saints/Hornets owner Tom Benson have issued statements in support of Tulane's ambitions, so a drawn out battle may be on the horizon. Normally, I'd give the edge to the side that's supported by the Mayor and a hugely popular and influential local business leader, but this is a Tulane game we are talking about...

Back to actual sports news. There are somewhere around 20 press conferences happening in the world of college sports this morning. The BXII is introducing it's new commissioner, Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby (yes, BOWLSby), The WAC is imploding, La Tech will be dancing on it's grave, The Sun Belt is expanding, an CUSA is becoming "WACin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." This would be a true CONFERENCE EXPANDAGGEDON, if any of these teams actually mattered at all. Meanwhile the MAC is going to just keep it's head down and let this all blow over.

What would the potential new playoff system have looked like in the past? For one, LSU would have had a rematch IN 2007!

Roll Bama Roll did THE SEC AS 80'S METAL BANDS and it's mostly accurate, except for the fact that LSU is clearly Van Halen. I could explain it, but WAFB's Jaques Doucet already did that at length a few years ago.

This is about as compete a recap of Tennesse's spring as you are going to find anywhere.

All you stat heads out there will like this really cool chart of college football attendance over the last 5 years.

It's a stellar weekend in college baseball (our preview will be appearing here later this morning), with the most intriguing matchup being #11 Purdue, the biggest surprise in college baseball not named Kentucky, traveling to LA to face #14 UCLA in a series that could determine which team is a national seed. (Yes, Jim Delany, that's a B1G baseball team succeeding on the same criteria that the rest of the nation faces. You should have better faith in the teams in your own conference). Previews of the rest of the weekend, featuring some key SEC matchups, from Baseball America and Perfect Game are also worth a read.

In more baseball news; Austin Nola is on the national Shortstop of the Year watch list; Kevin Gausman, Raph Rhymes, and Nick Goody are on the Golden Spikes Player of the Year watch list; You should still be voting for Austin Nola everyday for the Senior CLASS award; I am leery of any sort of proposed meddling with college baseball by MLB and their idea about going to wood bats can get right the F out of here.

Shaq (make that Dr. O'Neal Ed. D) has a unique workout these days.

Here's a wonderful color photo of Pistol Pete making a no-look pass against Tulane.

Trying to beat the already low prices on the scalpers market, LSU is offering 2 for 1 deals on the North Texas and Idaho games. Save your money and get them cheaper on the day of.

The man who caused the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party to be renamed is leaving Georgia. The locals are dancing in the streets.

Lastly, a hearty congratulations to Scott Long in his first week flying solo during a time that would make lesser bloggers like myself take a well justified break.