AUSTIN, Texas -- The women aren't just barging in on the boys club, they're breaking down the door.

	Jody Conradt guided Texas to the first-ever perfect season.

Texas coach Jody Conradt needs just one more victory to become the second women's basketball coach to reach 800 career wins. Tennessee's Pat Summitt was the first, getting her 800th on Jan. 14 with a win over DePaul.

Conradt could get the milestone victory tonight against Texas Tech (15-1, 4-0 Big 12, No. 10 ESPN/USA Today, No. 7 AP). She has a career record of 799-262 in 34 seasons.

Until now, the 800 club had only a handful of men's coaching greats. Only three Division I men's coaches -- Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Jim Phelan -- have 800 or more wins. Texas Tech coach Bob Knight is close with 798.

In Division II, Clarence Gaines of Winston Salem and Jerry Johnson of LeMoyne-Owen also are members.

Conradt, 61, started her career in a different era, when the women's game hardly resembled the sport played today.

Victory No. 1 came in 1969 when Conradt was coaching at Sam Houston State. Women played six-on-six basketball and only two players could go the length of the court. She was a physical education teacher who didn't get paid to coach.

"People say they love doing their job so much they'd do it for free," Conradt said. "Well, I can prove it."

The sport has greatly evolved since then. Games are broadcast on primetime television, last season's NCAA final drew 29,000 fans and the WNBA has survived as a viable professional league.

Reaching 800 wins would be significant for any coach. Conradt, however, insists it will be just one more game in a season in which the Longhorns (11-4, 4-0, No. 21, No. 17) are trying to win a Big 12 title and return to the NCAA Tournament.

CONRADT'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS

A look at some of the milestone victories in Texas coach Jody Conradt's career: 200: Texas 89, UT-Arlington 34, Jan. 25, 1979 300: Texas 68, Arkansas 53, Jan. 30, 1982 439: Texas 97, Southern Cal 81, Feb. 20, 1986; Longhorns win national title 500: Texas 88, Texas Tech 61, Mar. 12, 1988 600: Texas 86, Creighton 69, Dec. 13, 1992 700: Texas 89, Northwestern 86, Dec. 18, 1997; first women's coach to reach 700 750: Texas 73, Louisville 59, Nov. 25, 2000 Note: Sam Houston State does not have record of Conradt's first season in 1969-70. According to the University of Texas, Conradt's seven-year record at Sam Houston State (1969-73) and Texas-Arlington (1973-76) was 117-62. -- Associated Press

Maybe it's because she'll be No. 2 in the 800 club. More likely it's because only one of those 799 victories won a national title.

"I think it would be shortsighted to focus on 800 wins," Conradt said. "We would be shortchanging a lot of young women that have worked hard."

"They don't remember 1976," she said, referring to when she started at Texas. "They weren't even born."

Conradt quickly turned Texas into a national powerhouse.

Although Summitt got to 800 first and her Tennessee teams have won six national titles to Texas's one, Conradt was the standard bearer for many years.

"Texas was a role model program for us," Summitt said of her early years at Tennessee.

Texas was the first undefeated national champion in 1986. In 1997, Conradt was the first women's coach to 700 victories. In 2001, she was the first to work 1,000 games. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.

Nell Fortner, the head coach of the WNBA's Indianapolis Fever and a college basketball analyst for ESPN, played for Conradt at Texas from 1977-81. She said Conradt still has the same drive and passion for the sport that she did 25 years ago.

"Her competitive fire and passion -- those things don't waver," Fortner said. "I'll never forget the first time I met her. She was a role model to me from the first moment. She could motivate and totally win you over in 10 minutes."

Conradt's teams fell from their perch in the 1990s as other programs like Tennessee, Connecticut and Texas Tech took their place.

From 1991 to 2001, the Longhorns couldn't advance past the second round of the NCAA Tournament and fell to the middle of the pack in the Big 12. Some questioned whether the game had left Conradt behind.

To catch up, Conradt quit her women's athletics director duties to coach and recruit full time. The result was the team's first run deep into the NCAA Tournament in 11 years with a nucleus of underclassmen and more promising recruits on the way.

"She assessed what she needed to do and made changes," Fortner said. "In basketball, your bloodline is your recruiting. She had to start getting some of those elite athletes back in there and she's done that." It also allowed Conradt to compete with Summitt again. Conradt's Longhorns have won two in a row over the Lady Vols, who had dominated the rivalry with 13 straight wins.

The two coaches were tied at 788 wins when the season began.

"It's going to be a really big accomplishment for Coach when it (800) happens," said Texas sophomore forward Heather Schreiber. "It just shows how much success she has had over the years."