WHAT TO LOOK FOR

How they got here: Top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Duke defeated Winthrop easily but had trouble with Notre Dame in the second round, raising a few eyebrows. Still, Duke won a game in which Mike Dunleavy wasn’t close to his best, Carlos Boozer had foul trouble and Jason Williams had to go to the free-throw line down the stretch. The Blue Devils came from behind to beat the Irish, 84-77. By comparison, Indiana--Duke’s opponent Thursday--beat Notre Dame, 76-75, in December. The fifth-seeded Hoosiers reached the Sweet 16 fairly easily, beating Utah and holding off a North Carolina Wilmington rally after USC stumbled to the Seahawks in the first round. Kent State, seeded 10th, cleared out the region by upsetting No. 7 Oklahoma State and No. 2 Alabama. But the Golden Flashes figure to run out of upsets against No. 3 Pittsburgh, which advanced by beating Central Connecticut State and California.

Difference makers: It’s fashionable now to consider other players for national player of the year, but ask any coach picking a team whose name he’d call first: It’s Williams. Dunleavy has guard skills in a big-man’s body with a great basketball mind--a combination that makes him extremely valuable and able to take advantage of the inevitable mismatches. Indiana relies on 6-foot-10 forward Jared Jeffries. With his inside-outside NBA skills, Jeffries might average more points in the pros than his 15 in the Hoosiers’ deliberately paced game. Brandin Knight does everything for Pitt but make free throws: He shoots 44% from the line, which makes Williams look brilliant at 67%. Trevor Huffman is a nice player for Kent State, but it’s hard to forget his flame-out against Cincinnati in last year’s NCAA tournament after a first-round upset of Indiana: He went two for 11 and scored only seven points.

Team tidbits: Duke is one of the nation’s top-scoring teams, sandwiched between Kansas and Oregon at 90 points a game. Indiana, far more deliberate in its style, averages 70. No team in the tournament attempts more three-pointers than the Blue Devils, though Missouri isn’t far behind. Pitt--playing in a regional semifinal for the first time in 28 years--is one of the nation’s best defensive teams, giving up 60 points a game. In two NCAA tournament games, the Panthers gave up 54 and 50. Pitt is 17-1 this season when holding teams under 60 points. Kent State is remarkable for winning at least one game in the tournament two years in a row despite a coaching change. Stan Heath, a former Michigan State assistant, replaced Gary Waters when he left for Rutgers.

How it shakes out: If anyone had told Mike Krzyzewski before the tournament all Duke would need to do this week to reach his 10th Final Four would be beat Indiana and either Pittsburgh or Kent State, he would have been thrilled. The Pittsburgh players will actually have to get on a plane this week after playing the first and second rounds in Pittsburgh, but the Panthers will be favored over Kent State. (By the way, it’s still home for Pittsburgh forward Jaron Brown: He went to Lexington’s Bryant Station High.) Pittsburgh’s defense is good, but not good enough to stop the Blue Devils. Duke moves on, as usual.