FAYETTEVILLE -- The Arkansas Razorbacks lost two games in the state of Mississippi in the same week -- 78-46 at Mississippi State and 76-60 at Ole Miss.
They came home and lost 90-86 to Auburn, which had a seven-game losing streak and eight scholarship players.
Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson still didn't lose his team.
"I don't believe these guys have lost faith in themselves," Anderson said of the Razorbacks' recent turnaround. "I certainly haven't."
Arkansas responded to a three-game losing streak with a three-game winning streak, including victories at home over Missouri 84-72 and LSU 85-65 and at Tennessee 75-65.
"I think this team is building some real serious chemistry," Anderson said. "Most teams that I've been associated with at this time of year, everybody understands their roles and they start playing some good basketball.
"But you only get that confidence by winning. I hope it continues."
The Razorbacks (15-14, 8-8 SEC) will try to extend their winning streak to a season-best four games when they play Alabama (17-11, 8-8) at 8 tonight in Coleman Coliseum.
Senior guard Anthon Bell said the Razorbacks are taking "a lot of confidence" into the game after winning at Tennessee for the first time since 2006.
The Vols were missing leading scorer Kevin Punter because a foot injury, but they beat LSU 81-65 without him in their previous home game.
"That's a good win, how we went in and basically had control the whole game," said Bell, who scored 16 points at Tennessee. "We showed we could do that on the road.
"If we go into Alabama with the same mind-set, I don't see why we can't do it again."
The Razorbacks are 2-11 away from Walton Arena -- including a 94-61 victory at Missouri -- with seven of those losses by four or fewer points and three in overtime to Mercer in North Little Rock and at Dayton and LSU.
Arkansas has overtime victories at home against Vanderbilt and Texas Tech and held on to beat Texas A&M when the Aggies missed a last-second three-point attempt that would have sent the game to overtime.
"Trust me, we've had a lot of valleys to this season and some peaks as well," Anderson said. "But through all the close games that we've lost, these guys have come back and worked extremely hard.
"They've listened to every word we've talked about from a coaching standpoint to stay together."
Bell said the Razorbacks knew they couldn't start questioning themselves or the coaches.
"We had to stay confident in ourselves and trust in the system," Bell said. "We couldn't get down on ourselves. That's how everything falls part.
"If you stay confident and stay true to who you are, the wins will come."
Anderson and the Razorbacks are going against an Alabama team coached by Avery Johnson, a longtime NBA player and coach, for the first time. Johnson's previous coaching experience was with the Dallas Mavericks and New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets.
"I've enjoyed getting to know Mike at all of our SEC head coaches meetings," Johnson said. "When I got the job, he reached out and when we've been at the meetings, he's given me a couple of tips on some situations as it relates to basketball in the conference and building relationships.
"I think he's done a really nice job with his team."
LSU Coach Johnny Jones said he's impressed with how Anderson has the Razorbacks playing since they lost to Auburn.
"A lot of teams that went through a rough stretch could have gone in a different direction," Jones said. "But Mike was able to get his team to stay focused."
The Razorbacks' resurgence has been keyed by their defense. The last three games they held their opponents to 37.8 percent shooting (70 of 185), including 25 percent on three-point attempts (17 of 68).
"We've just started off with focusing on the defensive end, because we've proven we can score on anybody," Bell said. "We've got proven scorers outside and inside, too.
"We know when we play defense, we can get the Ws."
Anderson said the Razorbacks showed at Tennessee they could finish a close game on the road and avoid the breakdowns they had suffered in numerous close losses.
"You've got to go through some things in order to get where you want to go, so that's the learning curve for this team," he said. "We've been in quite a few games where we had opportunity to seize the moment to win and we failed to do it.
"In the Tennessee game, we finally got over the hump. Hopefully, we have some carryover as we move forward."
Sports on 03/02/2016