Do you believe in magic?

'Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge." The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn.". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige."' -The Prestige, 2006

Marist got the 7-seed.
In my previous post, I noted that LSU is one of the teams that Marist can take out in the second round. One problem I didn't think of was location. The games are being played in New Orleans. "LSU" stands for Louisiana State University. Virtual home game.

The Red Foxes first have to take care of DePaul, a team out of the Big East with a misleading 11 losses. Losses to Rutgers, Connecticut, Texas, Tennessee, and Connecticut again are expected. Playing in their conference, you aren't going to be perfect unless you're UConn. This won't be a walk in the park, but with good guard play, it can certainly be done.

LSU's only losses this season are to the top teams in the country (Rutgers by two points, Tennessee by six points, Maryland by 13, and UConn by five), except for one glimmer of hope--a team Marist met last year in the second round--Middle Tennessee State. The coincidence is there. Will Marist be the team that disappears, or the prestige?