Former LSU coach Paul Manieri used to say something to the effect that the only thing harder than getting an SEC sweep was getting swept.

Maybe new coach Jay Johnson doesn’t subscribe to that theory.

The Tigers’ sweep of Missouri was the third straight weekend where one team or the other was breaking out the brooms.

Fortunately for the Tigers they were wielding the brooms on two of them — two weeks ago at Mississippi State with a lost weekend at Arkansas sandwiched between.

It was, according to LSU, the first time since 1996 that the Tigers had been involved in three consecutive sweeps. It was the same scenario then with sweeps of Georgia and Tennessee wrapped around getting swept by Florida.

It certainly left the Tigers, who travel to New Orleans to play UNO tonight, feeling a lot better about themselves after a rough start to conference play.

“I think we grew this week,” Johnson said after the final win against Missouri. “We beat a top 50 RPI club (UL-Lafayette) on Tuesday and earned three wins against a top 25 RPI team this weekend. That’s awesome.”

It left the Tigers (27-12, 10-8 SEC) tied with Texas A&M for third place in the tight SEC West, both one game behind Auburn and two games behind Arkansas.

LSU will host Georgia (28-12, 11-7) in a three-game series beginning Friday.

A year ago at this point a struggling LSU team that would eventually advance to the NCAA Tournament’s super regional was 6-12 in conference play.

LSU is currently ranked No. 16 in the all-important RPI rankings, suggesting it’s not out of the question the Tigers could still host an NCAA regional.

LSU could also be getting some help for the regular season home stretch.

Johnson said Monday that two key players who’ve been out with injuries could return soon.

Catcher Alex Milazzo has been out since early March with a knee injury suffered in the Shriner’s Classic in Houston.

Johnson said Milazzo has been hitting with no problem but “the only thing he can’t do is catch.” That’s a problem since the Tigers sorely miss his glove far more than his bat.

“It’s just a matter of pain tolerance as to what he can do and what he can’t do,” Johnson said.

Johnson originally had left fielder Gavin Dugas scheduled to return from a hand injury for the middle game of the Missouri series.

But he said Dugas said he didn’t feel right during batting practice.

“Credit to him for being honest,” Johnson said.