Pat Summitt of Tennessee and Jody Conradt of Texas are closing in on 800 victories. Theresa Grentz of Illinois recently became the eighth active women's coach to win 600 games.

All three have been at it a long time and, just as important, each became a head coach at a young age.

Schools don't hire head coaches in their early 20s now, and Summitt wonders if the game will see those huge victory totals in the future.

"I don't think many people have the opportunity to become a head coach at age 22 like I did,'' said Summitt, who is in her 29th season and has won 798 games.

"Even if you're a head coach at age 30, it becomes a matter of staying in the game longer. So you may not see as many with 700, 800, 900 as some of us that people call pioneers. I prefer just to be called a veteran coach.''

Coaches now have to put in several years an assistant before getting a head coaching job. It's rare for a major program to have a head coach younger than 30.

Schools were willing to hire much younger coaches when Summitt started.

"Certainly that favored coaches like myself and coach Conradt and coach Grentz,'' Summitt said. "Hopefully, we'll have more coaches stay in it longer.''

Connecticut's Geno Auriemma would be one coach who has a chance to reach 700 or 800 wins if he stays in the college game. Auriemma, who was 31 when he became the Huskies' coach, won 464 games in his first 17 seasons, an average of 27 a year.

At that rate, he'd need only nine more years to top 700, though it could happen sooner because the Huskies have averaged almost 34 wins the last nine seasons. With another strong NCAA Tournament run, Auriemma could top 500 by the end of this season.

The other active coaches with 600 victories are Vivian Stringer of Rutgers, Sue Gunter of LSU, Kay Yow of North Carolina State, Sylvia Hatchell of North Carolina and Rene Portland of Penn State.

Some others are getting close. Mike Granelli of St. Peter's started the new year with 582 victories, Auburn's Joe Ciampi had 573 and Georgia's Andy Landers 571.