Feels like deja vu

OK, so it's not college basketball, but the similarities for Louisiana schools this baseball season and in the 2004-05 basketball one are eerie.

In the middle of the 04-05 basketball season, it looked as though our state would be lucky to send more than one team to the Big Dance. Alas, LSU rallied and reached the NCAAs, joining Louisiana-Lafayette in Bracketville.

At the midpoint of this college baseball season, LSU, Tulane, ULL, NSU and most of the rest of the state were underperforming and Louisiana could have been nearly shut out of the NCAA Regionals.

But as the most pivotal weekend of the year arrives, Tulane is rolling, ULL is near the top of the Sun Belt, NSU has rallied back into position for the Southland Conference Tournament and LSU is clinging to eighth in the SEC (no small feat given where the Tigers were a month ago.)

So just as we once proclaimed Louisiana to be the "Bad Hoops State" only to see teams rally to the postseason, it looks as though the baseball teams have followed the same cue. So with two weeks until selection day on Memorial Day, my best guess for Louisiana teams in the Regionals: 4 (LSU, Tulane, ULL and McNeese.)