New Orleans ? Kansas and Texas? States.

Syracuse? City.

Marquette?

“No idea,” said Keith Dawson, who works as an information specialist at Kansas University’s computer center. “I know it’s French. After that I have no idea.”

“It’s in Milwaukee, I know that,” said Lane Bellan, a KU student with tickets for tonight’s national semifinal game in New Orleans. “It’s probably somebody with a lot of money who donated to the school.”

Rachael Johnson, a KU sophomore from Tulsa, Okla., couldn’t come up with the correct answer, either — even though her middle school competed with a Marquette Middle School back home.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Is Marquette a saint?”

Not quite.

Just as few people outside the Kansas University family seem to know the origin of the Jayhawk — the mythical bird with free-state roots — many KU fans lack namesake knowledge of KU’s Final Four opponent.

For the record, Marquette is named for the Rev. Jacques Marquette, a French missionary and Jesuit who explored North America in the 1600s. He died in 1675.

Pretty basic stuff for those who follow the Golden Eagles from Milwaukee.

“It’s the guy who founded and settled the area,” said Aaron Eparvier, a Marquette fan and New Orleans transplant from Wisconsin who attended practices Friday morning at the Louisiana Superdome.

KU players don’t seem to know much about the school itself, only that Dwyane Wade is a pretty good scorer and a victory today would earn KU a shot at a national title Monday.

“I mean, it’s a school,” Keith Langford said. “I don’t know anything about Marquette, except that we’re playing against them. As far as historywise, the school, I don’t know anything. And I really don’t care to know anything about them, either.”

Kirk Hinrich: “I have no idea.”

But Marquette’s story is getting out, with the spotlight shining brightly on the school founded in 1881 as Marquette College, a men’s liberal arts school. In 1906 it joined forces with a private dental college and became a university.

Today the Catholic school is no longer a male-only university, covers 80 acres in Milwaukee, boasts an undergraduate enrollment of 7,500 and charges annual tuition of $19,400.

“The general public may not know now,” Eparvier said, proudly sporting his bright golden “Marquette Basketball” T-shirt on the way to practice. “But they’re going to know.”