Only two people in history have coached Kansas University basketball for 30 or more years. One is, of course, the legendary Phog Allen. The other is Marian Washington.

Legendary is not a word that appears in front of Washington’s name. She never has had a team advance deeper into the NCAA Tournament than the Sweet 16, and she is coming off the worst season in KU basketball history, men or women.

Yet Washington is a survivor. She proved that Sunday when she put a team on the floor that obviously has potential. Sure, the Jayhawks barely escaped a semi-talented Texas-El Paso outfit, but they won, 63-60, and the bottom line is still the bottom line.

Last year’s dreadful 5-25 team wouldn’t have won that game. It would have found a way to lose. Washington didn’t say that, but anybody who saw the 2001-2002 team perform couldn’t make a rebuttal that would convince me.

On Sunday afternoon in Allen Fieldhouse, with the Jayhawks nursing a 61-60 lead, I looked on the floor and saw three freshmen and two sophomores. Those young players were there because Washington wanted them there.

“Oh, yes : absolutely,” Washington said.

The freshmen were point guard Erica Hallman and post players Tamara Ransburg and Crystal Kemp. The sophs were wings Aquanita Burras and Blair Waltz. Of those five, only Waltz is an incumbent. Burras is a juco transfer.

“They’re really fighters,” Washington said, smiling. “Anybody who sees us play knows this will be a good team in the future.”

Of those five, the most indispensable may be Hallman, and she didn’t start because she has been nursing a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament – the dreaded injury so common to women’s basketball – for the last month or so.

Hallman was named Miss Kentucky basketball last season while playing in the Cincinnati suburb of Covington, Ky., and it was obvious how she earned that honor. Even though she has to wear a brace on her right knee and was favoring a sprained ankle, Hallman displayed uncommon aplomb for a first-year player.

Hallman’s two clutch free throws with 15 seconds left forced UTEP into the position of having to shoot a three-pointer in order to forge a tie. Here was Hallman playing in her first college game and suddenly thrust into a pressure-packed nitty-gritty situation. And she drilled those two charities, bang-bang.

“It was just like practice,” Hallman said, shrugging. “They’re free. Nobody’s guarding you.”

Nobody is predicting Kansas will win the Big 12 Conference women’s basketball championship, and rightly so, but you have to think this team can climb a few notches in the standings. As you know, they only way to go is up after last year’s dismal 0-16 conference finish.

Washington watched something she hadn’t seen in too many moons on Sunday :quot; her players celebrating at midcourt. Washington had to wait until late November, but the Jayhawks finally posted a victory in 2002. Their last triumph had been in December of 2001.

Washington’s 29th season was doubly brutal because her roster was composed primarily of upperclassmen, meaning the potential for improvement didn’t exist. Now the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the Southwest Chief.

“That’s what makes it a lot of fun,” said Washington, who makes no bones about enjoying coaching again. She is rejuvenated – so much so that I couldn’t help but ask her if she would try for Allen’s longevity record. Allen spent 39 years as the Jayhawks’ men’s coach, and who’s to say Washington won’t tie or break it?

Washington danced around that question, but she definitely doesn’t want to step down anytime soon.

“I’ll tell you what,” she said. “This club will keep me around for a while.”