LSU Gets a Proven Unknown

Skip Bertman sounds convinced:

“When I began the search for a new LSU baseball coach, I was looking for a unique individual,” Bertman said. “It would take someone special to lead this program, someone who would demand excellence in both athletics and academics, someone who would represent LSU with dignity and class, and someone who would thrive in the high expectations of a championship program.

“I believe LSU has found that man, and his name is Paul Mainieri.”

So, here's what we know about Mainieri. He's won a lot. He's won games, conference championships and conference tournament championships. He's even won regionals and a super regional, advancing a northern school to the College World Series.

He's also done this in a watered-down, at best, conference. It's the equivalent of the Gonzaga men's basketball team going 13-1 in its conference every year. The Big East ranked 14th this year in Conference RPI. Guess where the SEC was. Nope, not first, but a respectable second. After all, the SEC's run of eight straight RPI titles had to come to an end sometime.

Back to the point. Mainieri has been dominating a conference ranked lower than the Big West, the Sun Belt, the Southern (home of College of Charleston's John Pawlowski), the Colonial Athletic Association and the Atlantic Sun. After Notre Dame, the next highest RPI team in the Big East was St. John's, which ranked 74th. And, I'm not saying reaching the College World Series is easy, but catch a break here and pull of an upset there and you're in one time. Going more than once proves excellence, not getting to a regional with an automatic bid every year and getting bounced.

Mainieri has never had to stand up to the type of competition he will have at LSU. Who else did he have to compete against players for at Notre Dame? Nobody from the Big East or Big Ten, that's for sure. Definitely not SEC teams. When did he have to face quality competition like Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss and Alabama in a one-month span? He's never faced it at the assistant level like Tim Corbin (Vanderbilt) or John Pawlowski (CofC) did at Clemson. He's never faced it like John Cohen (Kentucky) did at Florida.

Mainieri could very well turn out to be the right man for the job. He could very well return LSU to baseball glory. But I don't see it. I don't see him being better than Pat McMahon (Florida), Mike Bianco (Ole Miss), Ray Tanner (South Carolina) or Cohen. For the sake of LSU baseball, I hope I'm blind.