BATON ROUGE – Thank the Lord LSU baseball season began this weekend, considering the way the basketball team played in losing, 81-65, at Tennessee – No. 125 in the Ratings Percentage Index – on Saturday.

As the baseball team was wrapping up a 4-0 win over Cincinnati Saturday afternoon, the LSU basketball team was wrapping up its NCAA Tournament hopes in Knoxville, Tennessee – wrapping up to throw away, that is. The Tigers looked out of it from the outset and suffered their most embarrassing loss of the season to a team without its best player – guard Kevin Punter, who is the second leading scorer in the Southeastern Conference with 22 points a game. He missed the game with an ankle injury.

LSU was coming off a previous disappointing loss to Alabama at home, but Alabama was a hot team that came in on a four-game winning streak and with an RPI in the 30s. Then it lost to lowly Mississippi State, which will not help LSU’s cause. Tennessee came in at 12-14 overall and 5-8 in the SEC.

LSU coach Johnny Jones did not start “star” freshman Ben Simmons as he has not been adhering to academic guidelines. Simmons, expected to be the first pick of the next NBA Draft even though he apparently has no shot from anywhere resembling the outside, likely has no motivation to go to class. Simmons struggled again at the free throw line.

The Tigers (16-11, 9-5 SEC) looked sick, and now they will have to likely win three or all four of their remaining regular season games and advance into the SEC Tournament to have a chance. But forget that, the way they have played the last two games, they may only win one more regular season game. In addition to Simmons’ issues, guard Keith Hornsby suffered an injury in the game.

This is why baseball season could not have started at a better time.

The Tigers are 2-0 after a 6-5, 12-inning win over Cincinnati on Friday night and a 4-0 win on Sunday. Here are five early takeaways from LSU.

1. Antoine Duplantis of Lafayette High is yet another promising freshman signed by Coach Paul Mainieri who has played as advertised immediately – not unlike shortstop Alex Bregman two years ago. Duplantis had hits in both games, moved a key runner over in the season opener and threw a guy out at the plate from right field in the opener that figured in the win. Mainieri has a knack for knowing who to recruit and which of the recruits will have an immediate impact. He predicted Mikie Mahtook’s explosion as a freshman back in 2009 as well.

2.And there are other freshmen to keep an eye on like fourth outfielder Brennan Breaux of St. Thomas More High in Lafayette. O’Neal Lochridge of St. Thomas More led off LSU’s 12th Friday night and scored the winning run.

3.Sophomore ace Alex Lange appears to be ready to pick up where he left off in 2015 when he was named the national freshman pitcher of the year. With the win Saturday, he is 13-0 on his career. He struck out nine in six and two-thirds near effortless innings, topping out at 95 mph. It looked like he had just taken three days off from his previous victory – in Omaha, Nebraska, at the College World Series.

4.Junior left-hander Jared Poche will give LSU a formidable one-two starting pitching punch once again. The first prospect for the third starter will go Sunday. He is senior Jon Valek III, a transfer from Akron, which closed the program after last season. He may feel like he died and went to heaven. He was 6-6 with a 3.25 ERA last season for a 28-30 team.

5.Sophomore first baseman Greg Deichmann is a big, multi-talented legitimate power hitter who spent most of last season on the bench with injuries and waiting his turn. He homered Saturday for the first hit of his career. If he can do that consistently, this team could make a run to Omaha. Even if it doesn’t, things once again look more promising with baseball than with basketball.

After so much of “the No. 25 is here” stuff concerning Ben Simmons, it’s the same as it ever was. Baseball is the No. 2 sport at LSU as it has been for the last 20-plus years.