Dallas ? It’s easy to lie to yourself. We’ve all done it. More than once. Telling yourself the truth, even when you don’t want to hear it or acknowledge it, is the hardest thing we do.

For those reasons – not to mention 900 wins – Jody Conradt deserves your standing ovation.

Add the magical undefeated season that ended with a national title in 1986, three Final Four appearances, the 183-game winning streak against Southwest Conference schools and her enshrinement in the basketball Hall of Fame, and it’s easy to see why she’s a legend in women’s college basketball.

That said, the most selfless thing Conradt ever did for the UT women’s basketball program occurred the other day, when she walked away after 31 seasons and the second-most wins in history.

She knew it was time.

If we’re honest, the Longhorns were becoming less relevant on the national scene every year. When you hear discussions about the top programs in America, at some point Tennessee, Connecticut, Duke, North Carolina and Maryland come up in the conversation.

A few years ago, so did Texas. Not anymore.

The Longhorns, who failed to make the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons, aren’t even the best program in the state these days. Baylor and Texas A&M have surpassed them. Texas Tech is beside them.

It shouldn’t be that way.

Texas should have a dominant program because Conradt and the Longhorns helped put women’s college basketball on the map. She played an up-tempo attacking style before it became fashionable. She was a trendsetter and a basketball visionary.

For the Longhorns to be an afterthought in women’s college basketball bothered her, so she left. She didn’t quit. There’s a difference.

In this situation, staying would’ve been easy; leaving took courage. After all, no one was ever going to fire Conradt, just like no one is ever going to fire Mack Brown. She had earned the right to leave on her own terms, just like he has.

Now, it’s time for Chris Plonsky, the women’s athletic director, to do something she probably never envisioned: hire a women’s basketball coach.

There’s no need to make this complicated. Go hire Baylor’s Kim Mulkey before LSU gets around to asking the Louisiana native to come home.

It’s that simple. Really.

Don’t tell me how brash Mulkey is and how that might not work at staid, conservative, politically correct UT. Don’t tell me that just because Mulkey had a highly publicized feud with former LSU coach Pokey Chatman and likes to occasionally take verbal jabs at opposing teams – you should’ve heard the swipe she took at OU this week – that she wouldn’t fit in at Texas.

It is all about winning, isn’t it?

And, last I checked, she did that better than most.