Norfolk, Va. ? Duke brings impressive credentials into the Mideast Regional. Louisiana Tech has some impressive ones, too.

The Techsters have won two national titles, and they are one of two teams to make the NCAA Tournament all 23 years, while the No. 1-ranked Blue Devils still are looking for their first national championship.

The two meet today for a berth in the regional final. Louisiana Tech has won 21 straight, the longest streak in the country, and top-seeded Duke (29-3) has won 12 in a row. Nonetheless, the Techsters (29-2) got a seventh seed.

“When you get to the Sweet 16, you’re going to play somebody great anyway,” second-year Louisiana Tech coach Kurt Budke said of the matchup with Duke. “It might as well be the best team in the nation.”

The other game pits third-seeded Boston College (27-8) and coach Cathy Inglese against seventh-seeded Minnesota (23-8) and coach Pam Borton, a former assistant to Inglese at Vermont and later with the Eagles.

Louisiana Tech, the Western Athletic Conference champion, has already played two of the other top NCAA seeds this season, losing, 85-65, at Tennessee and winning, 87-84, at Penn State.

Now, the Techsters are ready to give their all against All-American Alana Beard and the Blue Devils, and to add to the program’s tradition.

“I wanted to go to a school where I could possibly win a national championship,” said guard Erica Smith-Taylor, who averaged 29.5 points in victories against Montana and Texas Tech in the first two rounds.

“That was first on my list. I wanted to win, I didn’t want to go to a school where I could average 30 points a game and lose.”

Budke replaced Louisiana Tech icon Leon Barmore as coach before last season. He laughs now when he recalls telling friends he was leaving a Texas community college to become Barmore’s top aide four years ago.

“People called me stupid and called me crazy for following Leon,” he said, because Barmore had built a dynasty in the women’s game.

Now, Budke is continuing it. Louisiana Tech and Tennessee are the only schools to have played in all 23 NCAA tournaments. Tech ended two of them as national champions, in 1982 and 1988, and won the last AIAW title in 1981, the year before the NCAAs began.