NASHVILLE — Kentucky might be the most perplexing 30-2 team ever. There are stretches in a game where the Cats look like the most talented team in the nation, where they dominate so much that you wonder what’s stopping them from the program’s eighth national championship. UK had a similar run in Friday’s quarterfinals win over Alabama when the Cats went on an 11-2 second-half run to bounce the Crimson Tide from the Southeastern Conference Tournament. But what’s stoppping them many of the times from reaching their full potential was on full display for most of Friday’s game. It all comes down to energy.Head coach John Calipari has said repeatedly that the SEC Tournament is not important in the big picture. His team took it a little too literal in a lethargic 73-67 win over Alabama on Friday. The Cats came out flat in the first half versus the Tide, looking more disinterested than focused on a No. 1 seed.  UK scraped by without much energy in the first half but had to mount a furious 11-point come-from-behind win to advance. “I’m trying to convince this young team of 19 year olds that either you want it more than they do or they want it more than you do,” Calipari said. “And whoever’s in that mode in this tournament or the next one is going to win.”UK fell behind early against Alabama and by as much 11 points thanks to a decisive Alabama rebounding advantage. The Tide outrebounded UK 45-33 for the game  and 26-16 in the first half. Alabama’s 21 offensive rebounds led to 22 second-chance points.”They just came out with a better energy than we did,” said freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins, who finished with eight rebounds, zero on the offensive glass. “We’ve been saying this since the beginning of the year that we’re every team’s Super Bowl. They’re going to come out pumped, so we’ve just come out and stop them. We’ve got to come out with a higher energy.”Kentucky, the tallest team in the nation, has outrebounded its opponents by 8.7 boards per game this season, but the Cats have lost the battle of the glass the last three games.”You all know rebounding is just effort, and they had more effort than we did to go after the balls,” Calipari said.Junior forward Patrick Patterson, who finished the game with seven points and eight rebounds, took blame for the rebounding woes. He was without a rebound until pulling one down with 7:56 left in the game.”This is all effort, effort on my part,” Patterson said. “Tonight, I think they even double teamed DeMarcus on rebounding and my man left and I still wasn’t able to get the rebound, so it’s about effort. It’s all about who wants the ball more.”Cousins has been so dominant on the glass this season that Patterson said he and his teammates have developed a tendency to defer to Cousins.”The rebound goes up and you expect him to get it,” Patterson said. “You can’t do that. You have to work just as hard or even harder than him to get the ball. We understand that he’s not going to get it every time.”Whether it’s laziness, a lack of focus or the early start time, the energy and effort was day and night from the first to the second half.In the first, UK allowed Alabama to impose its will on both the glass and on the defensive side of the ball. In the second, Cousins took two straight offensive charges and the Cats made a concerted effort to drive the ball to the hoop.If they can somehow generate that type of energy on a consistent basis, they’ll be a lock for an SEC championship and Final Four appearance. Whether or not UK will discover that 40-minute mentality is a question that has remained one of this team’s most perplexing qualities.”It’s win or go home,” Patterson said. “We understand that we need to bring it every night. We understand that we need to bring the intensity and just up our level of play. We need to be the more aggressive team out there and tonight we weren’t. Luckily enough we were able to get the win even though they were just basically beating us physically and outrebounding us. They totally had more effort than we did.”