Needless to say, this was not the Jayhawks’ best effort.

Sloppy passes, missed layups and pointless fouls characterized the Kansas women’s basketball team’s 66-53 loss to Texas Tech last night.

As ugly as last night’s game was — Kansas never led and trailed by as many as 21 points — things were not as grim as they’ve been in years past. By this time last year, Kansas was under an interim coach, had won just two conference games and was mired in a four-game losing streak, on the way to finishing out the season losing 10 straight. Oh, and at some point in there, coach Marian Washington officially retired.

The team’s future was definitely in doubt.

Along came coach Bonnie Henrickson, and things turned around in a hurry. This season, the team has won four conference games — compare that to last year’s two — and consistently hangs around in the games that it loses.

Give credit to Henrickson for changing the entire attitude of this Jayhawk team.

“It feels way better,” junior guard Erica Hallman said of how last year and this year relate. “We’re getting better every day, I think. We take steps in the right direction, this year, every time we step on the court.”

It’s been said before, and it’s worth mentioning again: this team wasn’t supposed to win a conference game this season. Granted, the Big 12 North is down — way down — but Kansas lost two of its top three players and was being forced to learn a whole new system.

When the dust settled after last season’s departures, Henrickson sat down with her team. Every time she spoke in public, she cautioned the public not to expect too much from this team, at least in terms of victories and losses.

Every chance she got, though, she talked about how proud fans would be of this team’s character and intensity. Heck, she said it so much the Athletics Department turned it into one of its radio commercials.

“It is from sunup to sundown that we handle ourselves with respect for where we are, the opportunity we have and the challenges in front of us.”

It’s on the radio all the time.

Somewhere along the line of respecting where they are and the challenges in front of them, Henrickson’s Jayhawks decided they weren’t going to settle to spend another season as an also-ran in the Big 12. Henrickson noticed it in some of the team’s first meetings.

“Just visiting with them, back in the spring, there was a confidence about them that they expected to be successful. At the time I thought that’s a little bit alarming, considering where we are, but what’s been good in recognizing that is they don’t go in to a place and play scared,” Henrickson said.

With four games to go, Kansas has a tenuous hold on eighth place in the conference. If the team can hold on to that spot, it would finish better than it has since the 1999-2000 team finished fourth.

Sure it’s tough. Dates with Nebraska (receiving votes in the Associated Press poll) and No. 7 Baylor loom at home, while the team travels to No. 18 Kansas State and No. 19 Iowa State.

No, it’s not going to be easy to finish out the season, but these ‘Hawks play as though they expect to win. Confidence has to count for something.