By midweek, sitting in her office preparing for the biggest game of the year against Middle Tennessee, looking almost bleary-eyed in front of a scratchpad full of Xs and Os and arrows, UTEP women's basketball coach Keitha Adams referred to herself as a mad scientist.
The plan was to draw up some offense against a team that owned the Miners in two previous meetings, holding them to an average of 55.5 points.
Somewhere in all those plays Adams created and taught to her team, she conjured an 84-73 victory Thursday night against the Conference USA standard-bearer. UTEP began with perhaps its best half of the year, weathered the inevitable Middle Tennessee run, made 33 of 37 free throws and played superbly in the final four minutes to move to 12-1, 3-0 in C-USA.