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Jody Conradt.

Article Excerpt
First off, Coach, I'd like you to end the mystery about why you decided to step down after 31 years as the University of Texas at Austin's women's basketball coach. Some people have speculated that you were pushed, even though you've said it was your decision.

It certainly was my decision, and I think [women's athletics director] Chris Plonsky and the administration at UT would substantiate that. I'd been thinking about it for a while. Thirty-one years is long to be at any institution, particularly in a coaching role. I had a wonderful opportunity to [watch the program] go from a time when women's basketball was totally in obscurity to a time when it has a lot of visibility, but I'd gotten to the point where I thought it would be fun to have my own life back, to control my schedule, to not be in a situation that's so stressful. It's a roller-coaster ride, and everything you do is scrutinized.

The fact is, you came off a season in which the Longhorns didn't make the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.

You always want to end on a positive note. If I'd been able to write the script, certainly I would have had us win a national championship and then say, "I'm done." But you know what? If that had happened, I might have felt an urge to go forward. In coaching, there's never a quitting point. Its about the student athletes--it was in the beginning and continues to be. You go into a home and you speak with parents and a student athlete about coming to the University of Texas--"This is a wonderful institution. These are your opportunities"--and the question always comes up: "Are you going to be there?" So you look into the eyes of an eighteen-year-old and you say, "Yes." You're not going to say, "No."

They're making a decision in some respects based on your being there.

That was the hardest thing, having to say to a class of freshmen or sophomores, "I know what I told you, and I know you came here with the intention that I would be your coach, but now I'm going to step aside." So in the most candid way I'd say--and again, I wish it had ended differently--it gave me an excuse. Texas needs to be in the NCAA tournament. There's a standard at the University of Texas: We have to be there. Everybody's expectations are that you have to be number one or better.

The pressure of being at UT is different from the pressure of being at another school?

Oh, I...

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