UK fans are tired of losing the big games. But you need to be patient with this team.

In a program with the regal history of Kentucky men’s basketball, there are no moral victories.

So that’s not what this was.

After putting up a spirited fight and getting breakout performances from unexpected places, Kentucky entered the final 3:46 of its meeting with No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic on Tuesday night with an 81-75 lead.

A UK program in substantial need of a “Kentucky is back, baby” kind of win had one within its grasp.

Alas, then two of the accomplished college hoops veterans that dot the Kansas roster, senior center Hunter Dickinson and senior point guard Dajuan Harris, ripped the victory away from the youthful Wildcats.

With Harris and Dickinson combining to score nine straight points for the Jayhawks down the stretch, Kansas (3-0) rallied from six down to claim an 89-84 victory over No. 17 Kentucky before 18,780 fans in the United Center.

The loss was Kentucky’s fourth in a row and sixth in its last seven appearances in the Champions Classic, the annual ESPN-sponsored doubleheader that features the same four college hoops blue bloods each season.

Since the start of the 2020-21 season, UK is now 6-17 against teams ranked in the AP Top 25.

Those numbers, obviously, are not up to the Kentucky standard.

But UK backers frustrated at seeing a potentially program-reinvigorating win over Bill Self and Kansas get away late should take a deep breath and look at the big picture.

The current Cats have a chance to be good.

“To come in this environment, with everything that goes with this, the bells and whistles, and (the UK players) perform like they did, I couldn’t ask for much more — except that they make some free throws and a shot down the stretch and win,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.

With lavishly hyped freshmen D.J. Wagner (1-for-12 shooting) and Justin Edwards (0-for-6) suffering through difficult offensive nights, a band of unlikely heroes almost led UK to a hoops stunner.

Freshman guard Rob Dillingham went on a scalding 3-point run in the first half in which he hit four treys in two minutes and one second of elapsed playing time to ignite UK to a 48-41 halftime lead.

“Rob went on a run,” Calipari said.

Sophomore forward Adou Thiero played the best game of his college career to date, producing a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

“He played above the rim, went and got balls, was physical,” Calipari said. “He was good.”

Thiero acknowledged feeling satisfaction in how he played, “but when you don’t walk away with the ‘W,’ it doesn’t feel the same.”

Frosh guard Reed Sheppard scored 13 points in 16 minutes of playing time and missed only one shot — a desperation heave with six seconds left in the game and UK down three points.

“This was a good game for us,” Sheppard said. “I think we’ll just build from it and continue to get better … for the next game like this.”

Kentucky’s unlikely heroes were unable to produce victory because of Kansas’ senior stars.

Presumably because Dickinson rejected UK’s entreaties as a transfer portal recruit last spring, Wildcats backers in the United Center booed the big man every time he touched the ball.

They had a lot of chances to boo because the 7-foot-2 Dickinson produced a double-double with 27 points and 21 rebounds.

Meanwhile, the 6-2 Harris — who had scored a combined two points in KU’s first two games of 2023-24 — hit 7 of 12 shots, 4 of 5 treys, and had 23 points against Kentucky.

Still, Kentucky played five teenagers among its top eight players Tuesday night. The Wildcats were without three big men on their roster who stand at least 7 feet. Kentucky’s top returnee, shooting guard Antonio Reeves, missed 18 of the 25 shots and 14 of the 17 3-point shots he attempted even as he scored an inefficient 24 points.

With all that, UK went to the final minute against a veteran team ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25. That should bode well for the ultimate arc of the Kentucky season.

“I like their team,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of UK. “To me, they are hard to guard with (forward) Tre (Mitchell) playing the 5 (position). … But they get (Aaron) Bradshaw back or their other bigs, that’s going to be a hard team to deal with.”

Calipari lamented that his team didn’t close out a game it was in position to win.

“I got to do a really good job of showing them how to finish games,” Calipari said. “… None of us are happy that we lost the game. I’m not happy.”

After another excruciating loss on a big stage, no doubt many Kentucky backers are unhappy too.

Yet the guess here is that, if the Big Blue Nation can show a little patience with the current Cats, UK fans are going to be rewarded with a team that will be “Kentucky good.”

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