FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Rori Harmon doesn’t hear many speeches from Jody Conradt, the retired Texas women’s basketball coach who led the Longhorns to their only national championship 40 years ago.
The fifth-year point guard figures there’s not much need for many words.
“I feel that national championship presence,” Harmon said. “It’s that undefeated season presence around us. That’s almost like all you need.”
Conradt was around the program long before the latest effort by the Longhorns to add a banner to the one raised for the 34-0 team of 1985-86.
Top-seeded Texas will chase a second consecutive Final Four berth when it faces No. 2 seed Michigan in the Fort Worth Regional 3 final Monday night.
Conradt’s team didn’t have to leave Austin to reach the Final Four in 1986, winning three times there before going on to Lexington, Kentucky, where they beat Cheryl Miller and Southern California for the title.
These Longhorns didn’t have to leave Texas for March Madness, winning twice in Austin before going 200 miles north to Fort Worth for a Sweet 16 victory over Kentucky that set up the meeting with the Wolverines.
Conradt was behind the bench against the Wildcats and will be there again Monday night. The 84-year-old goes to practice when she can, sometimes gives players puzzles (Jordan Lee said she and fellow guard Bryanna Preston got a 1,000-piece behemoth recently) and will on occasion offer a few words of encouragement or advice.
Her presence is a reminder of the last time the Texas program was among the elite — now that it finally appears to be again under Vic Schaefer, who was born in Austin and remembers first meeting Conradt in 1990 when he was the first-year coach at Sam Houston State in the prison town of Huntsville, about 150 miles from the UT campus.
“I think they’re aware,” Conradt said. “We just celebrated the 40th year, and the exes all came back and that team was recognized. I know they talked about it as a team, and I think they would like to be the second team to win the national championship.”
Texas’ Final Four berth last year was its first since 2003. The Longhorns lost to South Carolina in the semifinals, so they’re still looking for their first trip to the championship game since winning it all.
The Longhorns have a chance for consecutive top-five finishes in The Associated Press poll for the first time since 2003-04 under Conradt. Texas finished at least that high every year from 1982-88, including four consecutive No. 1 rankings.
“I think one our best reminders is having Coach Conradt at the gym with us,” said Lee, a sophomore. “We see the banners hanging up in our practice gym every day and not only (chasing) a second championship for the university but also a first one for Coach Schaefer. That was a big reason why I came here.”
Conradt won her title in the formative years of women’s athletics and is considered one of the pioneers of her sport. Schaefer certainly sees her that way.
“I think the longer you’re away from coaching, it becomes less about wins and losses,” said Conradt, whose final season was 2006-07. “I think the pride I feel now is we had the opportunity to build a foundation for young women having opportunity. It sort of set the standard for what was going to happen across the country.”
As the Longhorns chase Conradt’s on-court legacy, they’re equally as aware of what her tenure meant outside the lines.
“She wasn’t just a coach,” senior post Kyla Oldacre said. “She was everywhere. She was a huge advocate for women’s basketball, and that’s what’s so outstanding for us when she talks to us, you do take that personal, in a positive way, of course.”
They’re taking the pursuit of a championship personally, too.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
