The LSU Tigers were in big trouble a month ago.

After missing the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament last season for the first time in 23 years—a sacrilege to many in Baton Rouge—the Tigers were again struggling with a 6-11-1 conference mark.

That’s when LSU turned it all around. The Tigers have won 16 straight games, the longest streak among Division I teams, and are heading into the SEC tournament as the Western Division champions and the No. 2 seed.

“It’s been quite a ride the last few weeks,” second-year coach Paul Mainieri said. “I’ve been asked the question often: What has been the difference with our team? I really don’t have a good answer for that. If you look at our statistics, nothing really jumps off the page at you.”

Except the record, which stands at 39-16-1, including 18-11-1 in conference play. LSU actually has a 17-game unbeaten streak, counting a 10-10, 12-inning tie with Georgia—the SEC’s top seed—on April 20. That’s a month without a loss.

“I think the kids are just playing great baseball in every phase and it’s been a total team effort,” Mainieri said. “I’ve coached for 26 years now in college baseball and this team as much as any I’ve coached would define the word ‘team’ because everybody has contributed.”

LSU, which placed no players on the All-SEC first or second teams, opens tournament play Wednesday morning against seventh-seeded South Carolina. The Tigers swept the Gamecocks a few weeks ago after beating Tulane and McNeese State earlier that week.

“They had been up and down a little bit like a lot of us, and hadn’t won as many games in the league to that point as they had hoped, but they had a good midweek,” Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner said. “So, when we went in there on Friday, it almost seemed like they felt better. Did they have the swagger then that they have now? I certainly wouldn’t think so, but they were feeling better.”

The Tigers’ 16-game run is the team’s longest since the 1997 national champs won their first 19 games, and their 12-game SEC streak is their longest in one season.

“We haven’t spoken much about the streak,” Mainieri said. “Obviously, a lot of people in the media are and it’s been a hot topic of conversation, but I’ve just tried to keep the kids’ eye on the most immediate challenge, and that’s the next ballgame.”

Some questioned Mainieri’s decision to leave Notre Dame after the 2006 season. He opted to leave a program that often reached the NCAA tournament during his 12 years for one of the most pressure-packed jobs in the country.

“A lot of people still think I’m crazy,” he said, with a laugh.

After last year’s 29-26-1 finish, Mainieri overhauled his team by making several roster cuts and bringing in a recruiting class that was ranked as the top in the country.

“I don’t feel vindicated at all,” said Mainieri, who played at LSU for one season in 1976 and met his wife, Karen, on campus. “I took the job here because I was very confident that we could get the job done. The first year was a little bit rough, but I thought in some ways we overachieved. This year, we were able to bring in some players that are high-character kids.”

The offense has certainly been a major factor in the team’s recent success. The Tigers are hitting .335 and outscoring opponents 150-76 during the last 16 games, and their 26 home runs have brought comparisons to the slugging “Gorilla Ball” teams of the 1990s under Skip Bertman.

First baseman Matt Clark, a junior college transfer from Riverside Community College, is hitting .333 with a team-leading 19 home runs while driving in 47 runs. Sophomore outfielder Blake Dean leads the team with a .340 average and 48 RBIs while hitting 13 homers. Six others are hitting .300 or better, including freshman shortstop DJ LeMahieu (.335, 5, 38), JUCO transfer Derek Helenhi (.328, 2, 37), freshman catcher Micah Gibbs (.323, 1, 29), senior infielder Michael Hollander (.304, 4, 34), and sophomore outfielders Ryan Schimpf (.300, 10, 39) and Jared Mitchell (.305, 5, 21), also a wide receiver for the football team.

The pitching staff hasn’t been too shabby, either, with a 3.65 ERA and 146 strikeouts and 46 walks in 153 innings. Left-handers Ryan Verdugo (8-2, 3.54) and Blake Martin (4-3, 5.30), and rightys Jared Bradford (9-4, 4.07, four saves) and Louis Coleman (5-0, 1.56, two saves) have been key contributors.

“All of the sudden, you’ve got some well-rounded kids that care about the right things and they define a team in an unselfish way,” Mainieri said, “and I just figured the success was inevitable.”

^BUBBLE BEAVERS: Oregon State might be sweating it out when the NCAA announces its tournament field on Monday.

The two-time defending champion Beavers are 25-24 and completed their Pac-10 schedule at 11-13, leaving them in eighth place in the conference. The Pac-10 doesn’t play a postseason tournament, so Oregon State will have to hope for a sweep of Pacific at home this weekend and some generosity from the NCAA selection committee.

The record might not indicate the Beavers are worthy of an at-large berth, but they’re 50th in the RPI and won series earlier this season against Arizona, Arizona State, Georgia and Pepperdine. The committee also might consider giving Oregon State, one of college baseball’s best stories of the last few years, the opportunity to join UCLA (1970-74) as the only teams to win at least three straight College World Series titles.

^COMEBACK COUGARS: BYU was down and far from out.

The Cougars entered the eighth inning against Utah last Saturday trailing 10-0 when the offense went to work. BYU scored 12 runs on 11 hits and one error in the inning in a stunning 13-10 victory.

“I’ve never witnessed anything like this before in my life,” said BYU coach Vance Law, a former big leaguer.

Kasey Ko, Steve Parker, Jonathan Cluff, Brandon Relf, Bryce Ayoso and Andrew Law all drove in runs with no outs. Kent Walton walked with the bases loaded to make it 10-7, Ko hit a two-run single and Cluff tied it with an RBI single. Relf followed with a go-ahead single and Tyler Anderson balked in another run as BYU took a 12-10 lead.

^MR. VERSATILITY: Jason Buursma did everything he could to lead Bucknell to the Patriot League title.

The senior outfielder and pitcher was the tournament MVP after scoring the winning run in the deciding game against Navy, an 8-7 comeback victory last weekend. Buursma had all four of the Bison’s postseason wins with a 0.00 ERA in 10 innings. He also had a triple and homer in the two victories over the Midshipmen.

^AROUND THE HORN: The College of Charleston’s Jeremie Tice had three multiple homer performances in four games last week, batting .524 with 15 RBIs and scoring eight runs. … Kyle Heckathorn of Kennesaw State struck out 13, tying a school Division I record, in seven innings in a 7-1 victory over Jacksonville last Thursday. … Winthrop’s Joe Hudak recorded his 800th career coaching win last Friday night, when the Eagles beat UNC Asheville 13-12 in 10 innings. “It did not come easy,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of gray hair from these guys over the years.” … Auburn coach Tom Slater resigned Saturday after the Tigers failed to make the SEC tournament in his four seasons.

NEW YORK (AP)—Brett Boretti has been busy reading and responding to tons of e-mails during the past week.

With each visit to his crowded inbox, the Columbia University baseball coach further realizes the magnitude of leading the Lions to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 32 years.

“The alums have really grabbed hold of this and run with it and the e-mails have been really flooding in,” Boretti said. “It’s a lot of pride coming through. I think they’re really happy to see us back on top again.”

That’s because they’ve been waiting a while.

Columbia (22-25) beat Dartmouth in a three-game series last week to win its first Ivy League title since 1977, when the Lions shared the crown with Cornell. The victory also clinched the program’s first regional berth since 1976. The Lions will find out where they’re headed for the NCAA tournament on May 26.

“We’re up for anything,” said Boretti, in his third season as coach. “The guys are ecstatic to be in this position and we’re looking forward to going wherever they put us. We know we’re not going to be a favorite, but that also takes some pressure off. There’s no pressure on us.”

The fact Columbia is even in this position is, in some ways, stunning. The Lions started the season 0-8 with four losses each at Duke and Pepperdine. A day after getting their first win, they garnered some national attention—for the wrong reasons—when they gave up an NCAA-record 14 homers to Georgia Southern.

By the time the Ivy League season started, the Lions were 4-14. But that’s when it all turned around. Columbia is 18-11 since, including 17-6 in Ivy League regular-season and postseason play. The Lions’ 15 regular-season Ivy League wins is a school record.

“It’s a credit to our players, as far as the effort and work they’ve put in to get us to this point,” Boretti said.

Boretti took over three years ago for Paul Fernandes, the school’s associate athletic director who led the Lions to their last NCAA berth and is retiring from his current post July 1.

“Getting here, to be honest with you, I really didn’t think about a championship or how much time it would take,” Boretti said. “You more or less, in my mind, dive into things, take it one day at a time and do the best job you can teaching what you know.”

Boretti, a former star catcher at Davidson, was the head coach at Franklin & Marshall College before coming to Columbia. He credits school president Lee Bollinger and athletic director Dr. M. Dianne Murphy for putting an emphasis on the baseball program.

“Things are night and day from what they were just three years ago,” he said.

The Lions played this season on a brand-new turf field, and last spring had their batting cages and bullpens renovated, a new backstop put in and added chairback seating to the stands.

“We put ourselves into the game here,” Boretti said, “as far as recruiting against Harvard and Princeton and those guys.”

A few good players have also helped. John Baumann, a senior pitcher, might be more well-known for his talents on the basketball court but is also pretty good on the mound. The 6-foot-7 right-hander is 3-1 with a 5.08 ERA and three complete games for the Lions.

“Johnny’s obviously an outstanding student-athlete, and being a two-sport guy at an Ivy League school is very, very tough to do,” Boretti said. “He’s a guy that’s smart with his pitches and just wants to win. That’s the way he plays basketball, too.”

Second baseman Henry Perkins is hitting a team-leading .383 with three homers and 34 RBIs while also going 0-1 with a 1.91 ERA and a save. Outfielder Noah Cooper hit .507 in conference play, and is batting .320 overall with two homers and 16 RBIs.

Other keys to the lineup have been outfielders Jason Banos (.347, 4, 30) and Nick Cox (.365, 1, 19, 26-for-30 on stolen bases) and third baseman Mike Roberts (.282, 6, 36).

“We talk to our guys a lot about this: When we’re successful, it never seems to be one or two guys,” Boretti said. “It really is a collective effort offensively, everybody pitching in.”

Despite their sub-.500 record, the Lions have their most wins since the 2002 team went 22-23.

“As far as the overall record goes, there’s not a whole lot of focus on that at all,” said Boretti, who hopes to schedule a series next weekend with the winner of the Patriot League tournament. “I’d love to have a winning record, but with the schedule we play early on, we realize that’s going to be tough to do.

“Having gone and played out at Pepperdine, it kind of gave us that regional-type of atmosphere. When these guys go down to wherever we go, we’re not going to be in awe.”

LONG WAIT

LSU has the nation’s longest winning streak after beating the team that previously held that distinction.

Sean Ochinko’s RBI single scored Michael Hollander with the winning run early Wednesday morning as LSU defeated New Orleans 7-6 in 15 innings at Zephyr Field. The Tigers have won 13 straight after ending the Privateers’ 13-game streak.

The game was LSU’s longest since March 22, 1996, when the Tigers lost at Florida 7-6 in 16 innings.

“What a ballgame,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “A great game between two outstanding teams that battled to the end.”

TOUGH TERP

Sophomore Scott Swinson threw the sixth no-hitter in Maryland baseball history, striking out a career-high 10 in a 4-0 victory over Delaware in the Terrapins’ season finale Tuesday.

Delaware’s best chance at breaking up the no-hitter came with one out in the bottom of the eighth when Ryan Reed hit a sinking liner that right fielder A.J. Casario snagged out of the air with a head-on dive.

Swinson allowed just three baserunners with two walks and a hit batter.

QUICK WORK

Long Beach State’s Andrew Liebel must’ve been in a rush on Friday night.

The senior right-hander struck out six in a five-hitter, beating UC Santa Barbara 3-0 in a game that lasted just 2 hours and 12 minutes. Liebel faced three batters over the minimum and was helped by three double plays while tossing 109 pitches in his second consecutive shutout.

MEATY MATCHUPS

It’s No. 1 Miami against No. 2 North Carolina in an ACC showdown in Coral Gables, Fla., that could determine the top national seed for the NCAA tournament when the field of 64 teams is announced May 26. … The Big 12 has two big series between top 25 teams jockeying for position heading into the conference tournament with Nebraska at Missouri and Texas A&M at Texas. … Bucknell is at Navy this weekend for a best-of-three series to decide the Patriot League champion.

AROUND THE HORN

Nate Freiman went 5-for-5 with two home runs, two doubles and three RBIs to lead Duke over Campbell 10-5 Tuesday, completing the Blue Devils’ 27-0 non-conference record. Duke, 35-17-1 overall, had its first season without a non-conference loss. … San Diego State’s Stephen Strasburg struck out 15 and tossed his third straight complete game, beating BYU 8-1 last Thursday. “He could pitch right now in the major leagues,” BYU coach and former big leaguer Vance Law said. … Jacob House’s pinch-hit grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth gave Arkansas a 12-11 victory over South Carolina last Friday.

The 7-foot-3 native of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was projected as a first-round pick in the draft.

Thabeet averaged more than 10 points and almost eight rebounds a game as a sophomore, and ranked third in the nation with 147 blocked shots. He was the Big East’s defensive player of the year, helping UConn to a 24-9 record.

“As a team, we took a step in the right direction this year, but I look forward to us working together to win a Big East Championship and making a run at a national championship,” Thabeet said in a statement released Sunday by UConn. “I really enjoy being here, getting a great education and spending time with my friends and teammates.”

Thabeet, 21, has been playing organized basketball for fewer than six years.

“Hasheem has made as much progress as any player I have coached in my 36 years and if he continues that incredible progress, he will help us take the next step as a team and help himself become one of the best players in college basketball,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said.

Consider the numbers: 51.9 points, 17.4 rebounds, 8.1 assists.

And 36 victories.

That has been a heavy burden to carry, and all has been weighing on the minds of North Carolina fans with Sunday’s deadline approaching for college underclassmen to declare their entry to the 2008 NBA draft.

More than three dozen of their contemporaries declared their intent to go through the early entry process, and several more said they’ll wait until next year. But not until early Friday did word come that point guard Ty Lawson would enter the draft without hiring an agent. All-American center Tyler Hansbrough and shooting guard Wayne Ellington still were silent. So there remained were more questions than answers.

Most of the top threads on Inside Carolina’s basketball message board involve this topic, including one suggesting famous seer Nostradamus predicted the three players would stick around for another year of college. Apparently, there was no word about a quick detour through the draft process.

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There is more than just mere numbers at stake here, unless the numbers involve the players’ eventual draft positions, the money they’ll make, and the No. 1 that will be affixed to Carolina for much of the 2008-09 season if the Heels get all three players back. In that case, then it really is strictly about the numbers.

Even with a fresh Final Four appearance, there has not been a strong draft buzz about any of the Carolina players. That means less than many suppose it does. The only buzz that really matters is what the players hear from the NBA in making up their minds whether to stay in school, and then what develops in the final weeks leading up to the draft as teams work out and interview players.

With Hansbrough, Ellington and Lawson back—as well as forward Danny Green, who could enter the draft for the experience—North Carolina would have nearly all of the team that went 36-3, earned the ACC regular-season and tournament championships and reached the Final Four. There still would be elements that would be imperfect, but it’s unlikely there would be many competitors able to reach the level where they could explore those minor deficiencies.

When North Carolina showed up at the 2008 Final Four, it was among peers. Kansas turned out to be deeper, bigger and more athletic and was able to take over their semifinal game. But there will be no one else in college basketball next season as good as Kansas, Memphis or UCLA were this year. Those teams, like the Tar Heels, had returned most of the essential components of teams that won 30 games and reached at least the NCAA Elite Eight in 2007. The Tar Heels are the only team in position to do that next season.

Also, some of those Carolina concerns could be addressed. UNC will have two new inside players, 7-0 Tyler Zeller and 6-9 Ed Davis, to complement the frontcourt. They get back reserve guard Bobby Frasor. So there should be more depth and versatility. If Hansbrough is back, his continued development as a perimeter shooter will lessen the congestion that frequently bottles up the Heels’ offense along the baseline.

With another season, Lawson might begin to control games in the manner that the best point guards do. Certainly his February injury interrupted his development, but through two years he has not shown the ability to put his imprint on the biggest games. We’ve seen Jameer Nelson do that; also, Deron Williams, D.J. Augustin and Derrick Rose. Lawson’s physical talents compare to those players, but how many times have we watched a game in which he was the most memorable player?

IC message board poster St. Pete Heel put it best, claiming Heels fans are enduring “The joy of waiting for nothing.”

No news could be good news.

Mike DeCourcy is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at decourcy@sportingnews.com.

It was late January and Kentucky was 7-9. Billy Gillispie looked like he needed a vacation or three and some of the Wildcats fans were having some serious buyers’ remorse. This was not happening, was it?

Gillispie was supposed to take the Wildcats from good to great again. A program with seven national titles wants more than just NCAA appearances. They wanted to contend, they wanted urgency, they wanted a replacement for Tubby Smith and here they got it with a workaholic bachelor from Texas who thinks about nothing but basketball 24 hours a day.

No one expected a Final Four this year, but they also weren’t expecting a loss to Gardner-Webb. Or UAB, Houston and San Diego. Or complete blowouts at the hands of bitter rivals Louisville and Indiana. Then there was that ninth loss, this time at the hands of Florida and every UK fan’s No. 1 coaching choice last spring, Billy Donovan.

By that point rumors were flying that Gillispie wanted to run back to the Big 12, which was unlikely since it would have gone against every single thing he’s ever been about.

Still, this was bad. Even if Gillispie kept trying to tell people it wasn’t as bad as they thought.

“I’m not into prognosticating, but I have been liking what I have been seeing for the last three or four weeks,” he said at the time. “I think this team is going to continue to get better.”

Kentucky is 11-2 since then, now 18-11 on the season heading into the Southeastern Conference tournament and, eventually, what should be the NCAAs. To call this a remarkable turnaround doesn’t do it justice simply for the fact it was done in the game’s biggest fishbowl.

“Billy Gillispie deserves a lot of credit,” South Carolina coach Dave Odom said Monday. “He’s retooled his team in progress.”

Gillispie does deserve credit and so too do his players, who certainly could have quit on this season. But when the times got tough, they got tougher, especially senior guards Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley.

What’s made this run – capped by Sunday’s victory over Florida – even more impressive is UK also lost super freshman Patrick Patterson to injury, depleting an already thin front court.

What this is really about is old-school college basketball. At the high-major level, the game is often more about recruiting than development. Here in the era of one-and-done superstars, it is very difficult to win without big-time players. Programs have focused on coaches who can deliver that talent.

These days it is often about the coach who can get better players, not the one who can get players better.

Gillispie is a driven and proven recruiter, no doubt (he has two star players en route for next year). But he climbed the coaching ladder swiftly because of his ability to turn teams around on the fly. He won big in just his second season at UTEP and Texas A&M, long before his recruits could make a huge impact.

At Kentucky, he managed to do it even quicker. And, if anything, he’s looking back on the season now as a blessing for the entire team.

“I think it’s important for everyone in life, are you going to say, ‘Well, this is going to be a tough situation, are we just going to fall down or are we going to step forward?’ ” he said Monday. “All these guys stepped forward.”

Kentucky needs some success in the SEC tournament to assure itself an NCAA bid, although if the committee is about who is playing their best basketball in the here and now, the Wildcats would be a natural selection.

We’ll leave that to the bracket predicting people.

Either way, what started as a horror show turned into a season of pride. This might just be the shifting of expectations that a losing record deep in the heart of January can bring, but UK will take it.

There are even some parallels here to Rick Pitino’s first season in Lexington, when he took over a depleted, scandal-ridden program and led it to the most applauded 14-14 mark in history.

Gillispie took over a much better situation, of course. Tubby Smith left the program in decent shape with some tough-minded players.

The kind of players who looked at 7-9 and, just like Gillispie, believed that the season wasn’t lost.

“I think we’re rolling right now and everyone is coming together,” guard Derrick Jasper said.

Down in the Bluegrass, it’s better late than never.