Tuesday night had all the makings of an epic comeback.Down by 20 on the road in a hostile environment, the Kentucky men’s basketball team had a chance in the closing minutes to pull off an improbably comeback. It wasn’t quite the Bluegrass Miracle, but it certainly felt like a similar “Miracle on Main” a few days ago in Louisville. Kentucky almost pulled it off. Almost.Terrence Jones’ half-court heave as time expired banked off the backboard, ending UK’s bid for its first Southeastern Conference road win of the year. Alabama held on for a 68-66 victory in front of a sold-out crowd of 14,859 fans at Coleman Coliseum.”Obviously they manhandled us in the first 25 minutes and the last 10 minutes I thought we got after them and played the aggressive way we have to play,” head coach John Calipari said. “We also executed offensively, but even then we had a charge coming down the court. We just have young guys and we made those errors today.”The fact of the matter is Kentucky didn’t deserve to win Tuesday night. Say what you want about the gritty effort the last 10 to 15 minutes – a season-defining victory appeared to be on the brink – but the first 25 minutes of the game from UK was as bad of a 25-minute segment we’ve seen from a Kentucky team since Calipari has been head coach.There was no intensity. There was no fire. There was no so-called swagger. “They wanted it more than we did,” freshman point guard Brandon Knight said.It’s that plain and simple.”The biggest play I thought was when (JaMychal) Green had it inside, missed a shot and tipped it in,” Calipari said of Green’s tip-in to go up 64-61. “That was like he wants it worse than you want it. Even the last play when we were driving to the wing and we were going to do what we call a pitch or a pistol and the guy muscles Doron (Lamb) off. He just did not come off that hard. Those were the plays we will show on the tape and say this is why you lose ball games when they are close.”Calipari can be repetitive. Sometimes his speeches sound more like a politician’s plea than a pregame speech. But for as numbing as Calipari’s “we’re going to get everybody’s best shot” spiels are, he couldn’t be more right. Every game against Kentucky is the other team’s Super Bowl. Every game is the biggest of the year for the other team.Tuesday night was no different in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Nearly 15,000 fans packed Coleman Coliseum and treated it as if the SEC championship was on the line. Alabama’s players fed off it; Kentucky’s backed down from it.Maybe the players understand what it takes to win on the road now. Maybe Alabama was just the better team Tuesday night. But for whatever reason, this young UK team is struggling away from Rupp Arena. The Cats are now 0-2 on the road in the SEC and 2-3 overall. If you count the neutral games in Louisville for the Notre Dame game and Hawaii, the record is slightly better at 5-4.Talent wise, it doesn’t take a college basketball analyst to dissect which team from Tuesday’s clash in Alabama has more overall talent and potential. One is worthy of a top-15 ranking and will still be the favorite to win the SEC. The other is closer to the team that lost to St. Peter’s in November and has a current RPI of 218. But talent doesn’t always trump effort. For the first 25 minutes Tuesday, Alabama outhustled UK and played like the better team. The Crimson Tide won the loose balls, played more physical and hit shots it usually doesn’t make. Alabama entered the game having made three shots from behind the 3-point line in conference play. The Tide nailed seven against UK.It wasn’t that Kentucky got off to the slow start that Calipari has feared, but it didn’t play with the poise and “I’ll show you” attitude that last year’s team seemed to play with on the road. At least it didn’t until the final 15 minutes.After falling behind by as much as 52-32 on the heels of an Alabama 22-5 run, the Cats chipped and clawed their way back into the game. Instead of looking to the officials for calls or expecting Alabama to let up, Kentucky became the aggressor and started to dictate the game.Jones came alive down the stretch, scoring 11 of his 17 points in the second half, and Knight started to knock down 3s.The Cats closed it within a point on three different occasions but were unable to take the lead. Lamb missed a wide-open trey from the right corner with 2:03 remaining and a chance to storm in front, and Knight’s handoff to Lamb for a potential game-winning shot in the final seconds never materialized.Ultimately, it wasn’t too little, but it was certainly too late. The hole had been dug too deep to climb out of.It takes a different type of team to consistently win on the road. It takes a certain, special mentality. Kentucky hasn’t figured out what that is quite yet, but it has six more opportunities to figure it out before tournament play. The next one is Saturday at South Carolina. We all know how that one went last year.