Q&A With Andy Kennedy ABout His Fast-Track Roster Rebuild
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - May 7, 2026
Andy Kennedy basically had two players on his UAB men’s basketball roster – returnee Salim London and fall high school signee Jakobi Sharp – less than a month ago. Earlier this week, following the signing of WAC Freshman of the Year Elijah Duval of Southern Utah, and not only has the roster grown to 12 players but it also looks to be one of the best in the American Conference on paper.
Over the past month, Kennedy and his staff have added a front court that includes three players of 6-foot-10 or taller in Matt Mbole, Shah Hall and Aleks Alston, along with 6-foot-7 Jeremy Elysee. The backcourt additions consist of experienced Division I players in Duval, Justyn Fernandez (Delaware), Deuce Jones (St. Joseph’s) and TJ Caldwell (Arkansas State), junior college transfer Tim Holliday and Korie Corbett of Oak Hill Academy.
Kennedy is also waiting to see if KyeRon Lindsay-Martin, the 6-foot-8 forward, who averaged 10.8 points and 6.4 rebounds last season, will receive a waiver from the NCAA for another season.
On Thursday, Kennedy, who is still trying to sign at least one more frontcourt player, took a few minutes out of his hectic schedule to talk to The Banner about the past month.
On building a roster in just a few weeks: “It's certainly been challenging when you have to replace as many players as we have the last two years, really. I'm afraid this may be more the norm that I would like to accept, but it's just the reality of where we are right now in this industry. But I'm really pleased sitting here today. What is this May 7th? First week in May and we feel really good about the roster that we put together at this point.”
On what jumps out about the roster as of now: “I think we've really checked most every box. We've brought experience to our backcourt. We've got versatility. We've got playmaking, shot making, size. And then with our frontcourt, last year we were one of the smallest teams in college basketball going into the season. Then when we lost (Joao) Das Chagas before the season really started in earnest. We were one of the smallest 15 or 20 teams in the whole country. This year, hopefully, we will not have that issue. We've been able to fortify our front line with real size, a real presence. We've added some shot making to our forward spots. So we feel like we've got the pieces in place to have a good year.”
On the fairly recent addition of experienced guards Elijah Duval, Justyn Fernandez, Deuce Jones and TJ Caldwell: “All those guys have had success. You know, when you talk about Deuce, he was two years removed from the A-10 Freshman of the Year. Dynamic playmaker, three-level scorer, you know, a guy that just puts constant pressure on the paint. Then you add Elijah Duvall, who's coming off being the WAC freshman of the year. Another guy that's just powerfully built, really explosively athletic and it also puts a lot of pressure on that painted area. Then Fernandez is a guy that's coming off close to 17-point per game season at Delaware, a knockdown shooter that's capable of doing things off the bounce. And then you had TJ Caldwell, who started out at Ole Miss and was a double-figure scorer this past year or just under at Arkansas State. Four guys that I think will complement one another. You're bringing back Salim London, another guard with size. And then you add Tim Holliday, who's a dynamic scorer from the junior college ranks, along with a high school kid at about 6-4 that played at Oak Hill in Korie Corbett.
So when you look at our backcourt, it looks like you've got guys that can complement one another, which is important, that have versatility to be able to affect the game in multiple ways and we have size. Our smallest guy in the backcourt to date would be about 6-2. We would have much more size on our wings, which is something that was important for us in this class.”
On whether this might be his biggest roster since coming to UAB as the head coach: “I have to think about it. I'm thinking about the 29-win team, which would have been year three, had size, but I don't know if it had as much as this. Sitting here today, we've still got another piece to sign and then obviously we're still holding a spot for KyeRon Lindsay-Martin as we're going through this process. We're still in the appeal process trying to get his year back from an earlier stay. But more importantly, I think he's even going to fall into opportunities as it relates to the legislation for kids to have five years of eligibility moving forward, which should be passed in the next few weeks to a month. If you read it to the letter of the law, he would have exhausted his eligibility this year, but he's still within his five-year window, which I think, again, legally, I don't know how they would not allow him that opportunity. But we don’t know that yet. Even without Kye on our roster sitting here right now, we've got three kids over 6-10, which is something that we haven't had in my time here.”
On the final recruiting piece to the roster: “We're going to try to add one more frontcourt piece, but again, at this stage, you're looking for best available. There's a lot of things circulating out there, but in a perfect world, he would be a frontcourt addition.”
On the current frontcourt additions of Matt Mbole, Shah Hall, Aleks Alston and Jeremy Elyzee: “Well, with Big Matt Mbole, he's 6-11 and he’s about 275 pounds. He's got a 7-4 wingspan. He was No. 2 in junior college basketball last year in rebounding. And he was in the top five or so in blocked shots. So immediately he brings you a big presence. He's a guy that can anchor you at the basket. Then you got Shah Hall who is 6-10, about 245 pounds, long, athletic. Both of those kids are just at the beginning of their basketball development, but both have tremendous upsides and both give you presence at the basket with athleticism, with size, with the ability to block shots, rebound, and again, just anchor you at the rim. And then we were really excited to bring in Aleks Alston, a kid that was No. 1 in the state of Illinois coming out of high school. He goes to Maryland. You know, as every freshman, he's got to learn his way. But he's a 6-10 kid with a seven-foot wingspan that really can dribble, pass and shoot. He can really shoot the ball from the perimeter. And he's a guy that right now, depending upon who he can guard, could either play any of the front court positions and eventually I could see him turning into a big wing. And then Jeremy Elysee, the transfer from Southeast Louisiana, who was the freshman of the year at the Southland Conference, is a 6-7 kind of hybrid forward in the mold of a Ty Brewer. You know, if you can reflect back on Ty Brewer who started inside and evolved into more of a face-up guy, but he's athletic. He plays the right way. He's got two years of Division I experience. All of those guys are different in their skill sets, but I think collectively with of KyeRon back, and if we don't get KyeRon back in that spot, we'll have to go address that later on. But we're giving Kyron every opportunity to go through this process before we try to do anything in that regard.”
On, once again, using Yaxel Lendeborg’s story in recruiting, especially with Matt Mbole and Shah Hall: “Well, I mean, obviously, Yaxel, the year that he just had, he was a national player of the year (candidate). I guess he was second to Cam Boozer, but he has to have been one of the top two or three most talked about players in all of intercollegiate athletics and basketball last year. With the run that they had, and Dusty (May) and Michigan winning a national championship, and then the things that Yax was able to do, Big 10 Player of the Year, first team All-American, projected lottery pick, I couldn't be happier for him. But obviously, that's been a storyline. And then we've just had a lot of success with junior college kids, whether it be Yax or Chris Coleman or AJ Vasquez or Jaborri McGhee. We've just had a lot of guys recently that have come here and been able to be impactful at this level from the junior college ranks. So I think all of those things show that you can come here and have an opportunity from the same background that they're coming from.”
On the job the UAB coaching staff did in the recruiting process: “They've been tremendous. I mean, it would be worth a show just to try to (explain), because people don't really understand. They understand when you say, ‘Hey, I've got to replace my whole roster, the majority of my roster.’ They say, ‘OK, well, that sounds challenging.’ But just going through it in the day-to-day of the Rolodex of names. You're on a guy for two days then he goes somewhere else. Or you're on a guy, and then somebody comes up with a piece of intelligence that you don't like so you move off. You meet a guy and then 24 hours later he's on your campus and 36 hours later he's on your team. I mean, it’s just really, really a crazy time. My staff has done a tremendous job. Every one of them have worked really diligently on different leads. Then once we zero in on the guys, a true prospect, a priority, then we all zero in on it and go through what we have to go through from a process standpoint to make sure we're all on the same page. They've done a great job. You know, we had to do this with losing Ryan Cross, who gets the head job at ULM, a much deserved opportunity for him. Noah Dartmann goes with him in that capacity. So I lose two integral parts of our staff that have been with me from day one. We had to replace them and we were able to do so with Jesse Bopp. Then I brought Jon Coleman, a former player here, back in Noah's role. Those guys were able to hit the ground running. Jon, it was easier for him because he understood the lay of the land at UAB. As it related to Bopp, I mean, he's coming in here, he's in and out, and he's getting to know us and how we operate and also how we're trying to put together this roster. So those guys, along with (Chris) Shumate, along with Rob Williams, along with Carter Heston, along with Alex (Hausladen), they've all done a great job of helping us maneuver through this period.”
On facing sudden changes in recruiting decisions during this time: “Yeah, it happens a lot. I mean, literally, where you get a kid and you go through and you feel comfortable with it and you feel like he feels comfortable with it. And, you know, every player now has representation, so you feel like everybody's on the same page somewhat. You book a ticket and then the next day (when) he's supposed to travel he's gone somewhere else. It's over. You know, just like that. I have not had this, I've had friends of mine who've told me that they've actually had kids on their campus and as they're on their campus visiting their school they commit to another school. I haven't had that happen yet. But who knows? Maybe that happens down the road. So, yeah, it's a bizarre time, man. As you try to build it out, you obviously have an idea of what you're looking for, but then you may add a piece that you weren't anticipating, which changes the complete shuffle of what you try to do moving forward. So it's challenging, it's exhilarating. It's not for the weaker spirit, that's for sure. And you never know until you know. But I look forward to getting these guys on campus, which, believe it or not, is about two or three weeks away and then we'll start work in early June for next season.”