Quick - what does UTEP stand for?

Graham Hays knows.

It's arguable whether any program has come as far this season as the University of Texas El Paso, which entered the Top 25 this week for the first time in 34 years of women's basketball.

It's easier to make the case that no NCAA Tournament hopeful came as far just to get to this season than the Miners, who count three players from Poland, one from Bolivia, one from Belarus and one from Mozambique among their number. But despite the clash of cultures converging on a border town easily lost amidst the open spaces that define West Texas, the Miners continue to produce a balanced brand of basketball suggestive of uncommon familiarity.