Paul Mainieri probably wishes he had more time to tidy up his new place before welcoming some old friends over.

But the first-year South Carolina coach is still excited to have LSU visiting his Gamecocks for three games this weekend to finish the regular season.

Mainieri stepped down at LSU following the 2021 season, suffering from persistent neck pain.

The coaching break was the  perfect remedy. No games, no pain —and, suddenly, a lot more golf.

The pain was replaced by a  sudden itch to coach again and he insists he’s happy to be back in coaching, back in the unforgiving Southeastern Conference. But, frankly, at the moment his new program is a hot mess.

The Gamecocks (27-26, 5-22 SEC) had to rally with five runs in the bottom of the eighth Tuesday for a 6-5 win over Winthrop just to creep above the .500 mark overall.

But the SEC’s minefield has been, figuratively at least, another pain in the neck.

The Gamecocks have lost seven in a row in conference, including last weekend when they gave up 46 runs in three losses at Auburn.

They enter the weekend in 15th place in the conference, ahead of only 3-24 Missouri.

“I had just underestimated the strength of the conference, how   much better the conference has gotten in the last couple of years,” Mainieri said two weeks ago after a series loss to Kentucky. “The players are so much bigger and stronger and more experienced. We just have not been able to match up in some cases.”

That remark raised the ire of some Columbia pod casts and on talk radio. There was even speculation that Mainieri — whether by his own volition or getting pushed out the door— might be a one-and-done experiment at South Carolina.

It was news to Mainieri.

“I’m the coach at South Carolina and no one has told me anything different,” he said recently. “I’m totally committed to being here and I want to see this thing get on the tracks in the right way.

“I’ve been through this before. My first year at LSU (2007) was difficult.”

He turned the Tigers around with a College World Series trip his second year and the next season won the 2009 national championship. In all, he made five Omaha trips with LSU, also reaching the CWS finals in 2017.

There were also four SEC championships and six conference tournament titles.

“I’m very proud of my time at LSU,” said Mainieri, who has very little to prove as he’s already in the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

He’s taking over another proud program now, one where the athletic director who hired him, Ray Tanner, was the USC head coach for College World Series championships in 2010 and 2011.

The Gamecocks’ back-to-back national titles straddled the last year the CWS was held in Omaha’s old Rosenblatt Stadium and the first year it moved downtown.

Tanner, a good friend,  surprisingly retired from South Carolina in September, but Mainieri remains optimistic about his move.

“That can happen here,” Mainieri said on Tiger Rag radio of his success at LSU. “It may not happen at quickly as it did at LSU, but we’re working really hard. And I’m staying.”

Only a handful of current Tigers were around when Mainieri coached his last season at LSU in 2021.

But he was no stranger around the program over the previous three years since his retirement.

“If anybody has earned the right to do what they want to do and continue to coach, it’s him,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “It will be good to see him, and we’re looking forward to the games.”

The No. 1-ranked Tigers (40-12, 17-10) are trying to lock up one of the top eight super seeds for the NCAA tournament.

They enter the weekend third in the SEC, a game behind Arkansas and three games behind first-place Texas.

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LSU at South Carolina

Records (SEC): LSU 40-12 (17-10); South Carolina 27-26 (5-22).

Rankings D1.Baseball (RPI): LSU No. 1 (7); USC NR (71).

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Projected Pitching Matchups

6 p.m. Thursday / SEC Network

LSU TBA.  USC LH Ashton Crowder (2-2, 4.13, 42.2 IP, 7 BB, 24 SO, .254 OBA).

6 p.m. Friday / SECN+

LSU LH Kade Anderson (6-1, 3.66, 76.1 IP, 20 BB, 124 SO, .225 OBA). USC: LH Jake McCoy (4-4, 6.71, 55 IP, 35 BB, 76 SO, .267 OBA).

2 p.m. Saturday / SECN+

LSU RH Anthony Eyanson (8-2, 2.91, 74.1 IP, 27 BB, 116 SO, .213 OBA). USC TBA.

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Team Batting

LSU — BA: .305, HR: 82, SB: 42-58. USC — BA: .269, HR: 55, SB: 44-59.

Team Pitching

LSU — ERA: 3.81, OBA: .224, IP: 442. BB: 209. SO: 586. USC — ERA: 6.28, OBA: .264, IP: 448.1, BB: 243, SO: 473.

Team Fielding

LSU — Fld. Pct: .979. DP: 22, OSB: 29-41. USC — Fld. Pct: .975. DP: 40. OSB: 72-91.

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SEC STANDINGS

                  SEC          All

Texas                20-7    40-10

Arkansas          18-9    41-11

LSU                   17-10  40-12

Auburn              16-11  37-16

Georgia             16-11  40-13

Vanderbilt         16-11  36-16

Tennessee       15-12  40-13

Alabama           15-12  39-13

Ole Miss           14-13  35-17

Kentucky           13-14  29-20

Oklahoma         13-14  32-17

Florida               13-14  35-18

Miss. State       12-15  31-20

Texas A&M      10-17  27-23

1. Carolina 5-22 27-26

Missouri            3-24    16-35

This week’s series

All Thursday-Saturday

LSU at South Carolina; Texas A&M at Georgia; Alabama at Florida; Kentucky at Vanderbilt; Mississippi State at Missouri; Auburn at Ole Miss; Texas at Oklahoma; Tennessee at Arkansas; Texas A&M at Georgia.